RESEARCH PAPER Application of Fruit Wastes as Cost-Effective Carbon Sources for Biological Sulphate Reduction Ali Hussain 1 • Muhammad Anwar Iqbal 2 • Arshad Javid 1 • Abdul Razaq 3 • Sumaira Aslam 4 • Ali Hasan 1 • Muhammad Akmal 5 • Javed Iqbal Qazi 6 Received: 3 April 2017 / Accepted: 27 November 2017 Ó Shiraz University 2017 Abstract We conducted a study dealing with the economical application of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) for the treatment of sulphate-rich wastewater. In this study, four types of frequently available fruit wastes were employed as carbon sources for economical cultivation of the SRB and consequent reduction of sulphate from artificially prepared sulphate-rich wastewater. The bacterial species employed in this study were isolated from a leading wastewater channel in Pakistan and characterized phenotypically as well as genotypically. The bacterial identities were proved after BLAST analysis and construction of phylogenetic tree. Among all of the SRB species employed for sulphate reduction, Desulfovibrio fruc- tosovorans-HAQ2 was found as the leading sulphate reducer and reduced sulphate maximally to 29% (0.51 ± 0.02 g L -1 ), 76% (1.51 ± 0.07 g L -1 ), 41% (0.83 ± 0.02 g L -1 ), and 63% (1.25 ± 0.02 g L -1 ) using apple peelings, apple pomace, mango peelings, and watermelon rind, respectively, in a 60-day trial of anaerobic incubation. In the present study, apple pomace appeared as the most suitable carbon source only for Desulfovibrio fructosovorans-HAQ2, while any of the other three bacterial species could not reduce sulphate more than 34% using this substrate. However, on average, watermelon rind was found as the most appropriate carbon source for the cultivation of SRB and all the SRB species reduced sulphate efficiently in the range of 40–63% using this carbon source. Our findings of the present study prove the productive utility of fruit wastes for developing cost-effective and environmental-friendly remedial strategies. Keywords Cost-effective carbon sources Á Economical bioremediation Á Fruit wastes Á Sulphate-reducing bacteria Á Wastewater treatment 1 Introduction Environmental dumping of untreated anthropogenic dis- charges predominately of industrial origins has become the most serious concern of the day. A number of natural water bodies have become waste-dumping grounds in the last few decades in most of the developing as well as developed countries (Phiri et al. 2005; Bhatti and Latif 2011; Mulk et al. 2015). The natural configuration of water bodies has been devastating rapidly in parallel to rapid industrializa- tion, with the dumping of a variety of hazardous wastes (Hayzoun et al. 2014; Aris et al. 2015). In this connection, metallic wastes originating from multi-dimensional anthropogenic activities are considered to be the major culprits of the environmental degradation because of their recalcitrant natures (Armitage et al. 2007; Sakan et al. 2009; Wang et al. 2013; Aslam et al. 2016). Therefore, & Ali Hussain alihussainpu@yahoo.com; ali.hussain@uvas.edu.pk 1 Department of Wildlife and Ecology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 2 Department of Zoology, Women University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Bagh, Pakistan 3 Discipline of Botany, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 4 Department of Zoology, Government College Women University, Faisalabad, Pakistan 5 Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 6 Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan 123 Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci https://doi.org/10.1007/s40995-017-0436-1