Palm oil is one of the world's most widely produced vegetable oils. It is the fruit of the oil palm tree, a tropical species that originated in West Africa, but now grows as a hybrid in many parts of the world, including Asia and Central America. Palm oil is used for a variety of purposes. The world demand for palm oil has soared in the last two decades, first for its use in food, consumer products and more recently as the raw material for biofuel. Palm oil is extracted in a multiple stage process. The Shenzhou centrifuge enables three-phase separation, i.e. the simul- taneous separation of two immiscible liquids with different densities and one solid phase, provided that the solid phase is the heaviest phase. The most important difference from a decanter is the separate dis- charge of the two liquid phases. The Shenzhou centrifuge discharges the heavy liquid (water) via an adjustable impeller under pressure and the light liquid phase (oil) by gravity. The adjustable impeller allows ad- justing the separation zone inside the bowl and so the separation effi- ciency of the machine during operation. This optimizes the purity of the liquids and may possibly eliminate downstream equipment.