Patent ID: 7698022

Claim:
A system to optimize energy recovery for a process having a plurality of resource streams each having at least one operational attribute, the system comprising: an energy utility modeling computer having a processor, and memory coupled to the processor to store software and database records therein; a database stored in the memory of the energy modeling computer and having a plurality of sets of values each separately defining a potential range of values for at least one operational attribute for each of a plurality of hot resource streams and a plurality of sets of values each separately defining a potential range of values for at least one operational attribute for each of a plurality of cold resource streams; 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: receiving a plurality of sets of values each defining a potential range of attribute values for a separate one of a corresponding plurality of hot resource streams and a plurality of sets of values each defining a potential range of attribute values for a separate one of a corresponding plurality of cold resource streams; assigning at least one set of a plurality of stream specific minimum temperature approach values to each of the plurality of hot resource streams, at least two of the values within each set of stream specific minimum temperature approach values being different from each other; and determining a global heating energy utility interval and a global cooling energy utility interval responsive to the operations of receiving and assigning.