Overview
- Ensus’s Teesside site, approved Thursday for up to £100m in support, will run for three months to boost domestic carbon dioxide supply.
- The business department says imports are at risk because European fertiliser output has fallen, gas prices have risen due to the Iran conflict, and several CO2 plants in Europe are in unplanned maintenance.
- The bioethanol plant makes biogenic CO2 as a by-product used in food and drink processing, hospital care, abattoirs, and parts of the nuclear sector, so a restart helps keep these services running.
- The facility was mothballed in 2025 after a UK–US trade deal scrapped a 19% tariff on US bioethanol, and ministers say they kept it on standby from September to enable a quick restart.
- Company leaders and local MPs say about 100 direct jobs are protected with support for roughly 3,000 more in the supply chain, and the government says it will draw up a longer-term plan to cut reliance on CO2 imports.