Chapter 1
Introduction and Generalities
1-1 Introduction
Humans have been thinking about the effective and useful use of their abilities, facilities and resources for a long time, but in today's industrial world, this has been considered more than ever before. The limited resources of fossil fuels, the excessive increase in energy consumption and the consequent increase in greenhouse gases and the spread of environmental pollution have caused the issue of reducing energy consumption and optimizing its use to be considered one of the main priorities in the country's energy sector. Without a doubt, steel is one of the most important and strategic goods of the country and one of the most important goods in the country's industry. Increasing the efficiency and productivity of production factors, including energy, in steel factories can be considered as one of the ways to increase production and reach the nominal capacity of factories. Therefore, in order to improve the efficiency of the effective factors in steel production, it is necessary to carry out applied research according to the conditions and facilities of the country by taking advantage of scientific methods and use their findings in future planning and policies. Statement of the problem and definition of research
Economists attach great importance to productivity and its role in development. The emphasis in this case is so much that some of them consider the phenomenon of underdevelopment as the result of low productivity rate [1]. Therefore, this issue has expressed the special place of productivity in the economic development strategy of countries, both at the micro and macro level, and has raised it as an intellectual and social perspective and a culture. In this view, man with a realistic attitude to life, his thinking and intelligence, aligns his activities with values ??and realities in order to achieve the best results in the direction of material and spiritual goals. In the current situation, increasing productivity and efficient use of existing facilities has become more than a choice and has become a necessity.
Examining the components of economic growth in developed and developing countries shows that the increase in the productivity of production factors has exceeded the increase in the amount of investment. While in some countries, including our country, the low productivity rate has doubled the problem of lack of resources for investment.[2] It can be said that today productivity has become the wealth of nations and its continuous improvement is recognized as a condition for the survival of systems. [3]
Although cheap energy and manpower are among the relative advantages of Iran's economy, but due to improper use and waste of these resources, these advantages cannot be taken advantage of.[4] Also, looking at the state of energy consumption in Iran compared to other countries in the world, the importance of paying attention to the category of efficiency becomes more clear. Energy intensity [5], which is the amount of energy consumed for each unit of gross domestic product, in the industry sector of industrialized countries is about 50 to 70% of the energy intensity of this sector in Iran. [6] In this regard, due to the special consideration given to the issue of productivity in development programs, it is necessary to identify the factors affecting the country's consumption by conducting appropriate researches, and by adopting basic policies and providing appropriate strategies, it is necessary to resolve the bottlenecks and factors inhibiting the growth of productivity. The main emphasis in this research is the implementation of the energy efficiency improvement model in an organization or industry, which is Iran's steel industry. In this regard, by identifying and ranking improvement solutions, an effective step can be taken in the direction of improving energy consumption in the steel industry. In the current research, the proposed model below (Chart 1-1) has been tried to be practically experienced to improve energy efficiency in an organization. To achieve this goal, first by identifying the steel industry as one of the energy industries in the country and the factors affecting high energy consumption in this industry, the energy consumption indicators in the steel industry are introduced, then their relative importance is determined using related techniques. In the following, the solutions to improve the energy consumption in steel are identified using the opinions of the expert group and the help of past practical experiences, and finally, the improvement solutions are identified by decision-making techniques.In the following, the solutions to improve energy consumption in steel are identified using the opinions of the expert group and the help of past practical experiences, and at the end, the improvement solutions are ranked by multiple decision-making techniques for easier decision-making by the management of the organization, and the potential to improve consumption is determined for each of the solutions. The organization studied in this research is Iran Alloy Steel Company.
-3 Necessity of doing research
Energy is always one of the main and important discussions in all industries of the world and the amount of energy consumption is considered as one of the main factors determining the final price. For example, the price of steel in Ukraine, as one of the contenders of this industry in the world, has always been affected by the price of gas imported from Russia.
On the other hand, energy is one of the factors in determining the location of investment. Because the existence of energy and the possibility of its availability is the main factor for investment in various industries, and on the other hand, energy consumption, especially in the form of fossils, has environmental pollution and in industrialized countries, even if it is available and affordable, it faces limitations due to pollution. The steel industry as a mother and energy industry accounts for 5% of the world's total energy consumption. This number reaches 12% in some countries, including Japan, and often this energy is provided by fossil fuels such as coal (the most polluting fossil fuel in the world). There has always been a concern about excessive energy consumption in the world, but in Iran, less attention has been paid to this issue, and cheap energy is wasted more cheaply. This subject deeply needs special and special attention in order to preserve the added value and protect the environment. Per capita energy consumption in countries with steel technology, including Japan and Germany, is about 19 gigajoules per ton, and this consumption in the world is about 25 gigajoules per ton, but this number in Iran is more than 45 gigajoules per ton. However, due to the fact that energy is subsidized in Iran, the amount and causes of high energy consumption in the Iranian steel industry have been less investigated, or some of the proposed solutions have not been implemented. This is while all the countries with technology use environmental energy equipment such as blast furnace acidification dust collector, which reduces per capita energy consumption, which is less used in Iran.
1-4 Research objectives
Every year, significant amounts of country's resources and factors of production (especially energy) are used in the steel industry, and subsequently, significant amounts of related products are released to the market, which are consumed in society. In the meantime, knowing the effective factors in the consumption of steel and how to use them in the production process, in order to make necessary and desirable changes and provide analyzes based on economic principles, guides the producers to use the available inputs more efficiently and, as a result, obtain more products and income. Achieving this purpose requires the implementation of appropriate and practical studies and research, and based on the findings and results of such studies, manufacturers will pay attention to economic principles in the management of their units. In this regard, the main goal of this research is to provide solutions for improving energy consumption in Iran's steel industry, and its sub-goals include the following: 1- Understanding the analysis of the current situation 2- Providing appropriate solutions to increase productivity 3- Prioritizing the proposed solutions 1-5 Research questions
main questions In this The research is as follows:
What are the solutions to improve energy consumption in Iran's steel industry?
What is the priority of implementing the solutions? are considered the same.
The effect of the solutions was considered the same for different steels.
1-7 Limitations of the research
It is possible that not all the questionnaires will be returned to us.
The sources of information collection may not have the necessary cooperation with us.