Patent ID: 7035717

Claim:
A method for controlling a thermodynamic process of a system, the method comprising: providing optimization targets which relate to predetermined operation of the thermodynamic process of the system; determining a process model which is independent of the optimization targets and which describes effects of actions on status of the thermodynamic process of the system; measuring the status of the system; determining actions to take in an effort to cause the thermodynamic process of the system to perform closer to the optimization targets, wherein the determining the actions is carried out using at least the process model, the measured status, and a situational evaluation, and wherein the situational evaluation is independent of the process model and evaluates status of the thermodynamic process of the system with regard to the optimization targets by using quality functions; and then carrying out the determined actions in the system, wherein at least partially by virtue of the process model being independent of the optimization targets, and the situational evaluation being independent of the process model, the determining the process model includes retaining past information about the system's status so that the process model can continue to use the past information also after major changes in the system's status.