Process for obtaining a polyhydroxyalkanoate from the cell material of a microogranism

Claim 1

A process for obtaining a polyhydroxyalkanoate, synthesized intracellularly by a microorganism, from the cell material of a fermented, aqueous cell suspension, comprising: removing at least part of the fermentation solution, or at least part of the water contained in the fermentation solution, from the cell suspension, treating the cell material with an organic solvent to extract the polyhydroxyalkanoate from the cell material, which solvent is immiscible with water and which has a boiling point of less than 100° C., with or without the addition of water, stirring the resulting extraction mixture at a temperature of from room temperature to the boiling point of the organic solvent, allowing the mixture to settle, with or without centrifugation to obtain an aqueous phase and an organic phase, separating the organic phase which contains the polyhydroxyalkanoate in dissolved form from the aqueous phase which contains the cell residues in undissolved form, injecting the organic phase into hot water at a temperature which is higher than the boiling point of the organic solvent, thereby causing the organic solvent to evaporate and the polyhydroxyalkanoate to precipitate in the water in flocs, and isolating the precipitated polyhydroxyalkanoate flocs.