This methodology was developed by American Process Inc to address the need to design for simultaneous conservation of thermal energy and water in pulp and paper mills.

It is using the concepts and rigor of thermal Pinch technology while at the same time avoiding the practical pitfalls of “Water Pinch”.

SDM™ is based on the fact that “hot” and “cold” pinch streams can also be characterized as “sinks” and “sources” in a modified SDM™ grid. Other non-process streams (i.e. hose or cooling water) can also be added to the grid.

Using this grid, direct matches between hot, cold, sources and sinks can be identified easily. These can be supplemented by matches that require some stream treatment (filtering, stripping etc.) After these matches are exhausted the heat recovery can be designed on the remaining thermal duties.

Using the modified SDM™ grid allows engineers to consider alternative matches thereby allowing for geographical equipment distances, departmental availability and operational consideration. Simultaneous design for water and thermal energy reduction can be achieved in a time efficient manner resulting in cost effective and practical projects.