In this work, the liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data for ternary systems, methyl isobutyl ketone + o, m or p-cresol + water were measured at 333.15 K, 343.15 K and 353.15 K under 101.3 kPa. The nonrandom (NRTL) and universal quasichemical (UNIQUAC) models were used to correlate the experimental data, and the results indicated that, both models predicted LLE data quite accurately, with root mean square deviations (RMSD) less than 2.5%. The binary interaction parameters calculated from these two models were also reported. Distribution coefficient and selectivity were calculated to assess the extraction performance of methyl isobutyl ketone. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.