The effects of microbial fuel cell integration into constructed wetland on the performance of constructed wetland

•CW–MFC performed higher than Normal-CW for organic removal.•Different low-cost materials can work efficiently as electrodes.•Conductive materials can work as electron acceptor. The present work is the first detailed study, which is about the performance of CW after MFC integration with it. The experiments were run in open and closed circuit mode for assessment purpose. The findings of this study indicate towards a more practical application of MFC in wastewater treatment along with electricity production. The closed circuit operations of CW–MFCs have performed 12–20% better than open circuit operation and 27–49% better than Normal-CW for chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. The maximum power density of 320.8mW/m3 and current density of 422.2mA/m3 have been achieved in granular graphite anode and Pt coated carbon cloth cathode based CW–MFC.