Multi-purpose plants are frequently protected with mechanical safety devices like safety valves or bursting disks. Due to many changes of recipes it must be checked regularly whether the safety devices are sufficiently sized. But the sizing procedure of individual safety devices can be very tedious. Therefore energy specific relief areas (effective relief area per kW of energy input) have been determined for approx. 60 typical solvents. They are indicated for reactors with safety devices which have a set pressure of 7 bar (abs) or 11 bar (abs). These values are independent of the size of the reactors for vaporizing systems and arbitrary safety valves. The energy specific relief areas allow the minimum required relief area quickly to recalculate if the energy input of the reactor is known. In addition, the application of solvents in multi-purpose plants can be evaluated from a safety point of few. The energy specific relief areas are calculated based on a relief of two-phase gas/liquid mixtures. The data have been determined with the non-equilibrium HNE-DS method, which takes into account the boiling delay of the liquid in the safety device and the slip between gases and liquids. The method is recommended in the international standard ISO 4126 part 10. In addition, practical advice and possible improvements are outlined. The method leads to significantly smaller relief areas than according to the API 520. For multi-purpose plants with available safety devices this method allows for a considerable expansion of the application range of reactors. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.