Plate type heat exchangers are widely used in process industries for gas/gas applications. Typically, these exchangers prove to be very efficient, especially as air preheaters in process furnaces or in equipment used in environmental protection (e.g., in units for thermal disposal of wastes). For economic reasons, there is a need for a new optimization approach for plate type heat exchanger design and operation. The objective function is to achieve a minimal total annual cost of heat exchangers. Pressure drop and heat transfer are interdependent, and both of them strongly influence capital and operating costs of any heat transfer system. In designing a heat exchanger, it is necessary to determine the optimal dimensions of the apparatus with the given conditions of the equipment operation. The goal is to obtain the most economically optimal design. An economic assessment allows a comparable estimation of various alternatives. The total annual cost consisting of fixed and variable costs of the heat exchanger was selected as a criterion that summarizes different factors of influence into one objective function. Major cost components of a heat exchange system are as follows: capital, operating and maintenance costs of air and flue gas fans, and capital and maintenance costs of the plate type heat exchanger. The application of the developed optimization approach is demonstrated through practical industrial examples.