A new method for disruption of Gram-negative bacterium Ralstonia eutropha by supercritical CO(2) for poly(beta-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) recovery is proposed. The effects of different parameters such as exposure time, pressure, temperature, volume of methanol as a modifier, and culture history on cell disruption efficiency were investigated using Taguchi's statistical approach to determine optimum conditions. The optimum conditions for cell disruption and PHB recovery were as follows: exposure time, 100 min; pressure, 200 atm; temperature, 40 degrees C; volume of methanol, 0.2 mL. The cell culture time was less significant. At optimum conditions, the maximum efficiency of PHB recovery was found to be 89%. The proposed method is comparable with other recovery methods in terms of the percentage of PHB recovery, while it is environmentally more benign.

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