The invention discloses an oil-water separation system and a separation method. The oil-water separation system comprises a membrane filtration/demulsification system, a pre-separation system, a lightphase separation system and a heavy phase separation system; the membrane filtration/demulsification system comprises a membrane module and a circulating pump, and the pre-separation system comprisesa feeding tube, a hollow filter element and a steady flow zone; the light phase separation system sequentially comprises a material uniform distributor I, an upper coalescence separation zone and a light phase discharge port from bottom to top; and the heavy phase separation system sequentially comprises a material uniform distributor II, a lower coalescence separation zone, a light phase and heavy phase separation zone and a heavy phase discharge port from top to bottom. The separation system can be used to achieve continuous removal and preliminary of granular suspended matters in a material to be separated, rapid removal of free water drops or oil drops and demulsification and coalescence of a small amount of a heavy phase entrained in a light phase and a small amount of the light phase entrained in the heavy phase, has the advantages of short material residence time, high dewatering/deoiling efficiency and small device size, can realize deep removal of water, especially emulsifiedwater, in an oil product and deep removal of emulsified oil drops in sewage, has obvious advantages in oil-water separation of complex-composition and high-viscosity particle-containing severely emulsified oil products, and enables the moisture or oil removal rate to reach 99% or above.