The oil palm is renowned as the world’s highest-yielding woody oil crop per unit area. Its primary product, palm oil, yields up to 200 kg per mu (approximately 0.165 acres), surpassing peanut and soybean oil yields by 5–6 times and 10 times, respectively. Traditionally, palm oil is extracted by pressing the fruit mesocarp (flesh), distinguishing it from palm kernel oil, which is derived from the kernel. Palm oil, celebrated for its exceptional yield and quality, ranks alongside soybean oil and rapeseed oil as one of the "World’s Top Three Vegetable Oils." In recent years, palm oil has consistently led global production, consumption, and trade volumes, with China being its largest importer. 
Palm oil is extracted by pressing fresh palm fruit. Each fruit bunch weighs 20–30 kg and contains 1,500–2,000 individual fruits. Farmers harvest the bunches regularly and deliver them to processing plants on the same day. The integrity of the fruit bunch critically impacts the quality of crude palm oil (CPO), as damaged fruits spoil easily and degrade oil quality.
At palm oil mills, the primary outputs are crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernels. CPO undergoes multiple processes—including sterilization, threshing, cooking, pressing, clarification, purification, and drying—to become edible palm oil. Separated palm kernels require further processing: kernel/fiber separation, kernel conditioning, cracking, kernel/nut separation, and drying. The dried kernels are then sent to palm kernel crushing plants to extract palm kernel oil (PKO).
During palm fruit processing:
After sterilization, bunches enter the threshing stage to detach fruits from the bunch. Sterilized bunches are fed into rotary drum threshers; as the drum rotates, fruits gradually separate from the stalks. Stalks contain no oil, with primary losses occurring from unthreshed fruits. Inadequate sterilization reduces threshing efficiency, while excessive sterilization may cause stalks to absorb oil. Threshed stalks are typically incinerated, and the ash is used as potash fertilizer, biofuel, or returned to fields.
Threshed fruits enter sterilizers for steam heating to soften the mesocarp and separate it from the kernels. The mixture then moves to presses, where hot water is added to facilitate oil flow. Pressing maximizes oil extraction from the mesocarp while avoiding kernel breakage (to prevent oil contamination). Multi-stage pressing reduces kernel breakage rates.
The final step is clarification and purification. The mixture in clarification tanks is heated to 85–90°C, settled for 1–3 hours for layer separation. Top-layer oil is centrifuged to remove impurities, then vacuum-dried. Bottom sludge is also centrifuged to recover residual CPO, followed by drying and cooled storage.
Palm oil mills generate wastewater. In regions with stricter environmental regulations, advanced treatment processes may be adopted for this effluent.
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