One of the few publicly traded cellulosic ethanol companies will now focus on capturing methane from landfills, amid a market of drastically faultering ethanol prices.

In a corporate restructuring announced today, the Atlanta-based Xethanol Corp. said it had dropped its name and would continue doing business as Global Energy Holdings Inc. Instead of focusing exclusively on cellulosic ethanol, it will look to other technologies to cleanly burn methane into electricity.

David Ames, the company's president and CEO told Reuters the abundance of untapped landfills presents a good market opportunity.

"It's like the most abundant feedstock and it's just sitting there,"said Ames.

But the plunging ethanol market - mainly tied to the down petroleum market and the overall decrease in fuel usage, had a big impact on the company's long-term business outlook.

"You can make cellulosic at a price but it's not going to be economical when there are depressed prices for ethanol," Ames.

The company will move ahead with previously a planned demonstration facilitiy in Florida for converting citrus peel waste into ethanol, but had previously announced plans not to pursue two other cellulosic ethanol plants.

The holding company that replaces Xethanol will operate two subsidiaries: Global Energy Systems and Global Energy Ventures. Global Energy Systems will be tasked with tapping renewable energy projects with a focus on biomass and landfill-gas-to-energy. It also implements energy conservation and alternative energy projects for commercial and government agencies, including the US military. Global Energy Ventures will invest in early stage energy companies.

Xethanol will cease trading on the American Stock Exchange under the XNL ticker symbol and Global Energy Holdings Group will resume trading on the NYSE Alternext US under GNH.