Aníbal Montalva Rodríguez​ and ​​Miguel Ángel Fernández Donoso

Firewood remains the main source of heating for around 72% of households in Chile’s south-central regions. At the same time, many industries produce smoke and odours from combustion, contributing not only to poor air quality, but a significantly worse quality of life. The health impact is severe: the Ministry of the Environment estimates that nearly 10 million people are exposed to pollution levels up to eight times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization, increasing the risk of stroke, heart disease, chronic respiratory illness and lung cancer.

Montalva and Fernández developed a living biofilter system that reduces particulate matter emissions and odours by more than 90%. The system extracts smoke from a chimney, cools it to approximately 30°C and passes it through a permeable vegetated wall, where particulate matter is captured in the fibres of the substrate. Microorganisms and plant roots break down these pollutants, absorbing them as nutrients to grow healthier while also creating a mutually-beneficial ecosystem. The system operates continuously, requires little energy and is scalable, so it can be adapted for applications ranging from residential heaters, bigger public spaces — such as schools and hospitals — and large industrial boilers. While originally aimed at wood-fed furnaces, the technology is suited for retrieving particulate matter from other fuels and has achieved outstanding results in odour-control.

Scaling local solutions for broader impact

Friends for nearly 40 years, Fernández and Montalva began working together professionally around two decades ago, when Fernández led a municipal landscaping project and Montalva was the contractor. At the time, Chile had banned wood-burning fireplaces in Santiago and was planning similar measures in southern cities such as Temuco, where timber is an abundant natural resource, making wood-based heat essential.

During frequent work trips to Temuco, they realised these new measures would not only bring a major cultural shift, but also result in more expensive and less efficient alternatives. This inspired discussions on how green technology could help reduce pollution, without forcing households to abandon wood heating altogether. With years of combined expertise in agronomy and mechanics, they developed a seemingly simple idea that drew inspiration from nature: use plants to clean the air. “At first, people laughed,” Fernández recalls. “A wall of plants cleaning the air? Industry was sceptical too.”

With support from the regional government, six pilot units were installed and tested in Temuco under real-world conditions. The results exceeded expectations, prompting the duo to file a patent application and establish Filtrovivo to commercialise their work. They initially installed systems in their own homes, but word-of-mouth helped them reach private clients. Demand soon shifted toward industrial applications driven by regulatory compliance. With this growing interest, the inventors sought patent protection, filing first in Chile and later extending to Europe and the United States.

Since 2015, Filtrovivo has been deployed in multiple regions across Chile, in homes, industries, municipal buildings and educational facilities. As Montalva explains, “Clean air should be for all… But, as long as contaminating is free, it's very difficult to convince people to invest in something that will actually help to decontaminate.”

About the inventors