Liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data are vital to extraction process design and optimization. To provide fundamental data for the extracting process of dihydric phenol from wastewater, experimental liquid equilibrium data for ternary systems (methyl isobutyl ketone + catechol + water}, (methyl isobutyl ketone + resorcinol + water} and (methyl isobutyl ketone + hydroquinone + water} were determined at 333.15 K, 343.15 K and 353.15 K under atmospheric pressure. The NRTL and UNIQUAC models were used to correlate the experimental data and relevant binary interaction parameters were yielded. The experimental data were successfully correlated with the two models, and the root mean square deviations (RMSD) between the calculated and experimental values were less than 2%. Moreover, NRTL model performed slightly better than UNIQUAC model since the RMSD was smaller. Distribution coefficient and selectivity were employed to assess methyl isobutyl ketone's extraction capacity, which indicate that, methyl isobutyl ketone is a desirable extractant with extraction performance and physiochemical properties outperforming other extractants. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.