Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing were carried out to identify the environmental and economic burdens of six lignite-based electricity generation scenarios. Coal-based electricity generation is used as control. Results showed that diesel consumption for road transport, energy (i.e., electricity and steam) consumption for lignite drying, and the use of coal/lignite had dominant contributions to overall environmental and economic burden. Direct heavy metal and dibenz(a, h)anthracene emissions form electricity generation represented an additional important role to the total environmental effect for all scenarios. Lignite drying with steam drum and steam fluid bed scenarios present higher economic benefits than the coal-based scenario, whereas their environmental burden is higher than that of the coal-based scenario. Results indicate that lignite drying with microwave, tube type, and rotary drum technologies are unsuitable for lignite utilization in terms of cost and environmental views. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.