Patent ID: 7873443

Claim:
A system to optimize energy recovery for a process or cluster of processes having a plurality of resource streams, the system comprising: an energy utility modeling computer having a processor, and memory coupled to the processor to store software and database records therein; and energy utility modeling program product stored in the memory of the energy utility modeling computer to optimize energy recovery for the process, the program product including instructions that when executed by the energy utility modeling computer, cause the computer to perform the operations of: assigning each of a plurality of different combinations of stream-specific minimum temperature approach values to a same plurality of process streams, a substantial subset of the plurality of different combinations of stream-specific minimum temperature approach values each including at least one stream-specific minimum temperature approach value being different from at least one other of the stream-specific minimum temperature approach values within the respective combination of stream-specific minimum temperature approach values, determining at least one global minimum energy utility consumption value for each combination of the plurality of different combinations of the stream-specific minimum temperature approach values assigned the plurality of process streams to thereby identify an optimal combination of stream-specific minimum temperature approach values assigned the plurality of process streams that render an optimal global minimum energy utility value, and responsive to the operation of determining, identifying the optimal combination of stream-specific minimum temperature approach values rendering the optimal global minimum energy utility value.