Is destabilized coupled flat plate membrane technology valuable for high-salinity mine water treatment?

High-salinity mine water treatment faces challenges due to high costs and associated environmental burdens. Destabilized coupled flat-plate membrane technology has been applied to address these challenges, but its environmental effects and external costs remain poorly characterized. This study adopts an environmental life cycle costing approach to evaluate both the internal economic costs of the treatment process and the environmental damage, converting the latter into a unified monetary metric for comprehensive assessment. The results show that the technology improves water quality and reduces total cost by $0.32 per unit. Additionally, by-product recovery increases internal revenue by $0.62 and yields environmental benefits valued at $2.49. The process therefore holds strong potential for large-scale water remediation by substantially reducing the external environmental costs associated with high-salinity mine water discharge. Electricity use is the largest cost contributor, accounting for 34.28 % of internal costs and $1.38 in external costs. Replacing coal-fired power with photovoltaic or wind power reduces total costs by 52-55 %. Further optimization of the dosing strategy decreases internal treatment costs by $0.12 per ton. These improvements enhance the environmental and economic performance of the process. This study provides a basis for advancing the sustainability of high-salinity mine water treatment.