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To achieve the optimal trade‐off between economies and operability, simplifications of heat exchanger networks (HENs) are required. To do so, identifications of heat load loops and downstream paths are necessary. This paper proposes new methods for identifications of independent and dependent loops as well as downstream paths in HENs, respectively. Stream table and node adjacency matrix are defined in this paper to represent the structures of HENs. Based on graph theory, identification of loops in HENs is decomposed into three procedures: (a) finding a maximal tree, (b) identifying a maximal set of independent loops and (c) searching all loops. Locating the downstream paths in HENs is accomplished by finding directed trees which are generated by modifying the procedure for finding a maximal tree. A complex network with a splitting stream is used for detailed illustrations of the procedures.

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