Is it possible to patent a new general method of optimizing some industrial processes?
Disclaimer: you need to ask a legal expert: software patents is a very complex and specialized domain, so don't rely on strangers on the internet ;)

As far as I know some algorithmic methods are patentable, but there are conditions to satisfy, in particular about the novelty of the method. You would probably have to prove the novelty by doing a thorough literature review, it's probably not enough to show that the software leads to efficiency improvements.