1. A system for generating multi-energy computed tomography (CT) images of a subject, the system comprising: a polychromatic x-ray source configured to generate a polychromatic x-ray beam; a detector array arranged to receive the polychromatic x-ray beam after traversing through the subject and generate attenuation data responsive to receiving the polychromatic x-ray beam; a computer system configured to: acquire a measure of a polychromatic spectrum of the polychromatic x-ray beam; receive the attenuation data from the detector array; segment the attenuation data based on a plurality of component criteria to create a plurality of segmented datasets; generate template data from the segmented datasets; using the template data and the measure of the polychromatic spectrum, generate polychromatic synthetic data; using the template data and each of the segmented datasets, generate component synthetic data; and using the attenuation data, the polychromatic synthetic data, and the component synthetic data, reconstruct a plurality of multi-energy images, including separable images weighted for each of the component criteria.