Bioelectricity generation, contaminant removal and bacterial community distribution as affected by substrate material size and aquatic macrophyte in constructed wetland-microbial fuel cell

- Peak bioelectricity harvest was observed in planted CW-MFC with larger filler size.
- Plants play a key role in stable bioenergy output during a long operational period.
- Planted CW-MFC with small filler size showed a good performance in pollutant removal.
- Abundance of beta-Proteobacteria increased in planted CW-MFC with larger filler size.

Integrating microbial fuel cell with constructed wetland (CW-MFC) is a novel way to harvest bioelectricity during wastewater treatment. In this study, the bioelectricity generation, containment removal and microbial community distribution in CW-MFC as affected by substrate material sizes and aquatic macrophyte were investigated. The planted CW-MFC with larger filler size showed a significant promotion of the relative abundance of electrochemically active bacteria (beta-Proteobacteria), which might result in the increase of bioelectricity generation in CW-MFC (8.91 mW m−2). Additionally, a sharp decrease of voltage was observed in unplanted CW-MFC with smaller filler size in Cycle eight. However, the peak COD (86.7%) and NO3-N (87.1%) removal efficiencies were observed in planted CW-MFC with smaller filler size, which was strongly related to the biodiversity of microorganisms. Generally, the acclimation of exoelectrogens as dominant microbes in the anode chamber of planted CW-MFC with larger filler size could promote the bioelectricity generation during wastewater treatment.