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Funding Information: The authors are grateful to Jianxin Zhang, Janne Vuori, Hossein Baniasadi and Eero Haimi for technical assistance on characterizations of levoglucosan. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors In this work, pyrolysis oil produced by the slow pyrolysis of pinewood was the feed solution for a freeze concentration study and cooling crystallization recovery of levoglucosan. Liquid-liquid extraction of water-soluble compounds was performed by adding water to the original pyrolysis oil with ratios of 1:1 and 1:5 water: pyrolysis oil (wt%), respectively. A two-step suspension freeze concentration was then performed with the 1:1 and 1:5 aqueous pyrolysis oils (AqPO) to concentrate the solutions. The efficiency of water removal from AqPO was assessed by measuring the ice yield and distribution coefficient of ice impurities. Levoglucosan recovery from a supersaturated 1:1 AqPO-water mixture was performed for 37.5 min and 60 min by cooling crystallization with an aging time of 60 min. The average recovery rate of levoglucosan was 24 wt% with mean levoglucosan crystal size of 831 μm.

Concomitant crystallization leads to process intensification through the synergistic combination of the partial processes of particle formation and encapsulation within a single process step. Both cooling and electrospray crystallization in multi-component solutions were used to create (sub-)micron sized particles of different crystalline materials. Concentrations were varied to control core and shell material. Depending on the relative initial concentrations used, concomitant electrospray crystallization of isonicotinamide and caffeine leads to encapsulated particles. Only limited encapsulation was achieved during concomitant cooling crystallization. Concomitant cooling crystallization of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX)-2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) resulted in separate RDX and TNT particles. Using electrospray crystallization, spherical nano-particles were produced, for which the component distribution within the particles could not be determined. Whereas crystallization from bulk solvent starts with a nucleus that grows gradually outward, whereby heterogeneous growth of a coating material on this core particle is not guaranteed, it appears that crystallization from evaporating solvent droplets starts at the surface of the droplets, and moves gradually inward. The resulting RDX-TNT powders have been tested for impact and friction sensitivity. The impact sensitivity has decreased compared to the raw materials, and the friction sensitivity did not change. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.