Hollow fiber membranes are ubiquitously used in industrial separations, especially the filtration of drinking water.
Industrial water filters are mainly equipped with ultrafiltration hollow fiber membranes.  Domestic water filtration systems have microfiltration hollow fiber membranes. In microfiltration a membrane pore diameter of 0.1 micrometers cuts-off microorganisms like germs and bacteria, Giardia cysts and other intestinal parasites, as well removing sediments. Ultrafiltration membranes are capable of removing not only bacteria, but also viruses.
Hollow fibers are commonly used substrates for specialized bioreactor systems, with the ability of some hollow fiber cartridges to culture billions of anchorage-dependent cells within a relatively low (<100 mL) bioreactor volume.
Hollow fibers can be used for drug efficacy testing in cancer research, as an alternative to the traditional, but more expensive, xenograft model.
Hollow fiber membranes are used in Membrane oxygenators in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation which oxygenates blood, replacing lungs in critically ill patients.