A liquid-liquid separation model (LLSM) has been utilised to describe the clear palm oil separation from the crude palm oil mixture, which is a process that involves disengagement of oil droplets from an oil-water emulsion. The LLSM is used to determine the design parameters of industrial scale settlers and the results compared with that of the conventional solid-liquid settling model (SLSM) using three different industrial scale settlers as the basis of comparison. The LLSM predictions were much more accurate than the SLSM. This justifies the use of the LLSM instead of the conventional SLSM in determining the optimal design parameters and the optimal operating conditions of industrial settlers. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.