The recovery of butyl acetate (BA) from lovastatin wastewater was studied by using the method of solvent extraction with liquid paraffin (LP) as the extractant. The effect of several key factors on the extraction efficiency including lysozyme content, initial BA concentration, equilibration time, and phase ratio was investigated. The results showed that the extraction efficiency of BA can reach 98% in 15 min at room temperature when the initial concentration of BA is 7000 mg/L The loading capability of LP was demonstrated to be high by reusing the loaded LP to extract the fresh wastewater. Moreover, BA in the LP phase can be effectively recovered by vacuum evaporation and the regenerated LP has a very good reusability. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.