Pearson said the move would protect existing jobs at the plant, “as we did lose a few people over the period where we were offline”.
“So we will be recruiting a few additional roles into the business, which is good news, but the biggest benefit is keeping the jobs safe in the North East and on Teesside.”
Bioethanol is also used as an additive to fuels and Pearson said that was “important” to help keep fuel available.
He said the discussions with the government were with the view to ensure the plant was available as a contingency but also to look at how new policies could allow the plant to “get back up and running” long-term, without government support.
“I’m very confident [that will happen], the fact that we’ve had these challenges at the moment, I think that shows how important it is for us to protect our key supply chains in our chemical industries,” he said.