Solix Biofuels is a Colorado company that takes microalgae and puts them in a closed chamber, harvests the oil produced by the algae, and turns it into biofuels.
One huge advantage, from the website’s “About Microalgae and Biofuels” page: “Microalgae production does not compete with agriculture food crops for land. Solix’s AGSTM Technology uses a closed system that does not require soil; it can be implemented on arid land that is not suitable for agriculture use.” In other words, the pond scum is not grown in an open pond but in closed chambers that can be set up in a wide variety of locations.
How is this restoration? It’s not really. No particular landscape is being restored. But once we find substitutes for fossil fuels, we can begin to restore the places where fossil fuels were extracted. That is less likely to happen while the sites are still being used for oil or natural gas production.