The aim of the present paper is to develop new and sustainable
protocols for the extraction of PHA from MMC, alternative to the
current approaches based on the use of environmentally concerned
solvents (e.g., chlorinated compounds) or harsh reagents (e.g.,
NaClO). Thus, novel extraction protocols based on dimethyl carbonate
(DMC) and various cell pretreatments were tested, taking
into account their impact on polymer quality and recovery. This
work demonstrated that the impact of polymer extraction step,
in the in the overall analysis of PHA production process from
MMCs, should not be overlooked and different extraction strategies
were compared for solving this key-issue.