1. A method of synthesizing components to design a system meeting an exergy loss target value, said method comprising: synthesizing one or more candidate sets of components; calculating an exergy loss value for each of the one or more candidate sets of components; determining whether at least one of the candidate set of components meets the exergy loss target value; and identifying at least one candidate set of components determined to meet the exergy loss target value as the set of components for use in the design of the system.