The hides are cured with salt obtained from Tuz Lake in Turkish Leather Industry. Salt obtained from natural salt sources contains extremely halophilic archaea and these microorganisms reduce the quality of leather. Most of antibacterial agents used in leather industry cannot effectively inactivate extremely halophilic archaea because of the high salt concentration in brine solutions. | Journal of Automation and Control Engineering Vol. 3, No. 4, August 2015 Application of Alternating Electric Current in Leather Industry to Kill Extremely Halophilic Archaea Found in Brine Solutions Yasar Birbir Department of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Marmara University, Goztepe, Istanbul, Turkey Email: ybirbir@ Sema Anik 1, Meral Birbir 2, and Pinar Caglayan 2 1 2 Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences, Marmara University, Goztepe, Istanbul, Turkey Division Plant Diseases and Microbiology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Marmara University, Goztepe, Istanbu, Turkey Email: {semaanik, , marpdora_py}@ Lake and Kaldirim Saltern were found as 10 3-105 CFU/mL and 105 CFU/mL, respectively [1]. When the salt curing method is applied to hides, extremely halophilic archaea in salt may grow in high numbers in the salted hides. In the previous study in which 36 salt-pack cured hide samples examined, extremely halophilic archaea were found between 10 3-108 CFU/g [2]. Due to an inadequate salt curing preservation method, all hides contained extremely halophilic archaea in high numbers [2], [3]. Berber and Birbir (2010) notified that while 94% of the samples contained proteolytic extremely halophilic archaea (10 2-106 CFU/g), 81% of the samples contained lipolytic extremely halophilic archaea (102-106 CFU/g) [2]. The researchers reported that the extremely halophilic archaeal counts were found as 105-108 CFU/g in the brine cured hides [4], [5]. It can be seen that those results are consistent with each other. It was explained that the grain surface and collagen fibers of hide are digested by proteolytic archaea originated from unprocessed solar salt by the researchers [6]. Moreover, it was mentioned that the extremely halophilic archaea, secreting protease and lipase, produced sponge-like vesicles within hide and light stains on the suede surface of finished double-face leathers .
