Abstract―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. The goal of this study is to determine an alternative treatment system in order to inactivate extremely halophilic archaea in the brine solution. Brine samples were collected from Tuz Lake and the total cell number of extremely halophilic archaea was determined. 2A alternating electric current was implemented to the brine samples for 25 minutes. Brine samples contained usually 103-104 colony forming unit of extremely halophilic archaea per mL. One minute of 2A alternating electric current treatment was enough to eradicate extremely halophilic archaea in brine solutions and this can reduce economic losses in leather industry.

Index Terms―alternating electric current, leather industry, extremely halophilic archaea

Cite: Yasar Birbir, Sema Anik, Meral Birbir, and Pinar Caglayan, "Application of Alternating Electric Current in Leather Industry to Kill Extremely Halophilic Archaea Found in Brine Solutions," Jounal of Automation and Control Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 343-346, August, 2015. doi: 10.12720/joace.3.4.343-346