Electricity is a terrible way to produce industrial heat. This could actually be pretty useful.
That is incorrect. Electrical induction has replaced coke based metal processing for decades now. The industry did not say, "hey! let us use the most expensive way possible to melt metal," one day and just stick with it.
The CO2 from fermentation is compensated by the CO2 adsorbed by the grain when it grows.
It's even better than that. The growing of the grain takes up more CO2 during the growing cycle than is released due to fermentation so the complete brewing process actually captures CO2. 8^)
Most Iron oxide is reduced in Coke furnaces, but it can also be reduced via electrolysis. The latter is more expensive, but commonly done for e.g. tool steel where controlling the carbon content is critical.
That's a thing to watch here, are they going to be green or just act green? This question extends to the power source for the electrolysis too. If it's powered by Coal or LNG it's just adding extra steps to make people feel good.
using solar, wind or other zero-carbon power generation systems
Why not just power your plant directly with those, then?
Solar panels and wind turbines don't burn as cleanly. :-)
Electricity is a terrible way to produce industrial heat. This could actually be pretty useful.
That is incorrect. Electrical induction has replaced coke based metal processing for decades now. The industry did not say, "hey! let us use the most expensive way possible to melt metal," one day and just stick with it.
The CO2 from fermentation is compensated by the CO2 adsorbed by the grain when it grows.
It's even better than that. The growing of the grain takes up more CO2 during the growing cycle than is released due to fermentation so the complete brewing process actually captures CO2. 8^)