Patent Document ID: 20110087380
Application ID: 12767275
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A system to synthesize a grass-roots heat exchanger network for a plurality of hot process streams to be cooled and a plurality of cold process streams to be heated according to a plurality of utilities targets, the system comprising: a heat exchange network synthesizing computer having a processor and memory in communication with the processor to store software and database records therein; at least one database stored in memory accessible to the energy modeling computer, comprising: a plurality of sets of values each separately defining a potential range of values for a corresponding plurality of operational attributes for each of a plurality of hot resource streams, a plurality of sets of values each separately defining a potential range of values for a corresponding plurality of operational attributes for each of a plurality of cold resource streams, indicia of stream initial types for each of a plurality of hot process streams and for each of a plurality of cold process streams, and indicia of one or more non-thermodynamically constrained hot process streams of the plurality of hot process streams each constrained from matching at least one of the plurality of cold process streams to define one or more forbidden matches; heat exchange network synthesizing program product stored in the memory of the exchange network synthesizing computer to synthesize a grass-roots heat exchanger network for the plurality of hot process streams to be cooled and the plurality of cold process streams to be heated, the program product including instructions that when executed by the heat exchange network synthesizing computer cause the computer to perform the operations of: receiving a plurality of operational attributes including a heat capacity flow rate, a supply temperature, and a desired target temperature for each of the plurality of hot process streams and for each of the plurality of cold process streams, receiving indicia of at least one minimum temperature approach value for each of the plurality of the hot process streams, the indicia of at least one minimum temperature approach value for each of the plurality of hot process streams comprising indicia of one or more of the following: a plurality of discrete stream-specific minimum temperature approach values each separately assigned to a different one of the plurality of hot process streams, at least one of the stream-specific minimum temperature approach values assigned to a corresponding at least one of the plurality of hot process streams being different from at least one other of the plurality of stream-specific minimum temperature approach values assigned to a corresponding at least one other of the plurality of hot process streams, a plurality of sets of at least two stream-specific minimum temperature approach values defining a range of stream-specific minimum temperature approach values, each of the plurality of sets of at least two stream-specific minimum temperature approach values separately assigned to a different one of the plurality of hot process streams, and a plurality of sets of dual stream minimum temperature approach values each separately assigned to a different one of the plurality of hot process streams, receiving indicia of one or more non-thermodynamic streams matching constraints, matching the plurality of hot process streams and the plurality of cold process streams to attain one or more utilities energy consumption targets according to a matching scheme comprising one or more of the following operations: employing homogeneous matching to account for the one or more non-thermodynamic stream matching constraints to thereby reduce one or more utility consumption requirements, and employing streams designation switching to account for the one or more non-thermodynamic stream matching constraints to thereby reduce one or more utility consumption requirements, determining an initial heat exchanger network design responsive to the operation of matching the plurality of hot process streams and the plurality of cold process streams, removing any redundant process-to-process heat exchangers from the initial design when so existing responsive to the operation of determining an initial heat exchanger network design, merging same-stream utility heat exchangers when two or more same-stream utility heat exchangers exist; responsive to the operation of determining an initial heat exchanger network design, and providing a final heat exchanger network design responsive to one or more of the following operations: the determining of an initial heat exchanger network design, the removing of any redundant process to process heat exchangers from the initial design when so existing, and the merging of the two or more same-stream utility heat exchangers when so existing.