Integrated Interfacial Systems for Organic‐Contaminated Hypersaline Brines: A Testable Framework for Solar Evaporation, Detoxification, and Crystallization Control

ABSTRACT

In hypersaline‐brine processing, water recovery, organic‐reagent management, and crystallization are usually evaluated separately, although failures can alter other operations' boundaries. Residual amphiphilic collectors from selected salt‐lake flotation circuits can enter downstream brines or mother liquors. High ionic strength may promote interfacial partitioning; evaporation increases supersaturation and salt deposition. Neither peak evaporation flux nor parent‐pollutant removal captures this water–organic–salt–resource coupling. We frame integrated interfacial systems (IIS) as a testable proposition, not an established technology class. We hypothesize that genuine IIS behaviour results from measurable, non‐additive interactions among localized heat, interfacial detoxification, and directional mass transfer. The proposition links thermal‐to‐kinetic, detoxification‐to‐crystallization, and mass‐transfer‐to‐stability feedbacks while separating established evidence from plausible inference. Candidate IIS require matched single‐module, pairwise, and fully integrated controls, with environmental and process detoxification distinguished. Testing requires compositionally realistic and authentic brines, closed water, salt, organic‐carbon, and target‐ion balances, and separate characterization of condensate, salt, and mother liquor. No reviewed system has yet demonstrated all functions within one closed control volume. Accordingly, IIS should be judged by falsifiability and whether interfacial integration outperforms modular sequencing under matched boundaries. The mere coexistence of multiple functions in one material remains insufficient.