Exothermic reactions involving organic peroxides carry a high potential hazard and must be considered with care. A safe handling requires, among others, the assessment of thermal process safety, for which safety characteristics like overall heat production and the resulting adiabatic temperature rise are essential. The article presents the results of the calorimetric investigation of the synthesis of four peroxycarboxylic esters, three tert-Butyl and one tert-Amyl peroxycarboxylic ester. In the two-step synthesis the second one clearly shows the higher exothermic potential. The overall heat production lies in the range of 126-135 kJ/mol and is nearly independent of the carboxylic acid residual in the tert-Butyl peroxycarboxylic ester. The calculated adiabatic temperature rise is 70-80 K. Influence of temperature and feed rate on the heat generation is discussed for one species. A grading of the synthesis with respect to temperature levels according to the criticality classes by Stoessel leads to the most critical for an exothermic reaction. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.