Experimental liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data for the extraction of methanol, ethanol and 1-propanol from water by diethyl ether and dichloromethane at 293.15K and at ambient pressure were investigated. Data for the binodal curves have been determined by cloud-point titration method and conjugate points on tie-line were obtained by correlating the refractive index of the binodal curves as a function of composition. The experimental ternary (liquid + liquid) equilibrium data have been estimated using the NRTL and UNIQUAC activity coefficient models to obtain the binary interaction parameters of these components by a combination of Levenberg-Marquardt method and the genetic algorithm based method. The distribution coefficients and the selectivity factor of the solvent used were calculated and presented. From our experimental and calculated results, we conclude that for the extraction of alcohol from aqueous solutions with dichloromethane solvent has a higher selectivity factor than the diethyl ether solvent. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.