Necessity is the mother of innovation. Oricon Enterprises realised it when one of its affiliated companies, Kopran, went looking for a cheaper fuel to replace the expensive furnace oil that powered its boilers. This led to the company stumbling upon bio-coal briquettes, an energy-efficient and environement-friendly alternative. Briquetting is a process where agricultural waste is turned into solid fuel, in this case a pellet. Despite the lure of carbon credits, there was one hitch — while the new find was cost-effective, assured supply was non-existent. Since supply was seasonal, companies shied away from long-term contarcts.