Sustainable innovation
From Patagonia

Humos de la Patagonia was born in 2021 as an idea of Fernando Ojeda who, driven by his family's legacy and the urgent environmental problem of the beaver plague in Tierra del Fuego, began experimenting with prototypes of eco-friendly briquettes. Between 2021 and 2023, Fernando worked alone, refining the formula and validating its feasibility until he won the UNAB Endowment 2023, a fund supporting innovative entrepreneurship that gave him mentoring and resources to move forward.

However, to turn his idea into a technologically robust product and scale up production, he needed a partner with a scientific background. So in July 2024, Felipe Bermúdez, then a PhD candidate in Biotechnology, joined the project, bringing the research and development expertise it needed. Together they formally incorporated Humos de la Patagonia, combining Fernando's strategic vision with Felipe's scientific rigor.

Since then, the co-founding duo has consolidated the production process in Magallanes, taken their proposal to national and international competitions, and is now expanding Humos de la Patagonia to the Biobío region, where it upcycles wildfire-damaged wood into high-value industrial pellets.