Hybrid reactive–cooling crystallization: A microwave enabled process for efficient particle tuning

Crystallization, long known for its dual role as a separation and purification process, has more recently become pivotal also for engineering particles with specified properties. While cooling crystallization has demonstrated significant progress on controlling nucleation and crystal growth phenomena, precipitation processes have been considerably constrained by mass-transfer limitations that hinder uniform supersaturation mediation. In this context, we demonstrate how Microwave Heating (MWH) can enable hybrid control for such processes that initially mediates erratic reactive crystallization phenomena and subsequently integrates cooling crystallization mechanisms. The generated MW-assisted Hybrid Reactive Cooling (MWHRC) crystallization platform employs temperature as a key control lever dictating the transition as well as the contribution ratios between the two processes. Swift transition to thermally elevated crystallization regimes appeared to positively impact nucleation, crystal growth and agglomeration mechanisms, enabling the MWHRC approach to efficiently tune particle properties and achieve up to 50% enhanced filtration performance, while also requiring ~30% less process time than its conventional muti-acid addition counterpart. • MW-enabled Hybrid Reactive–Cooling (MWHRC) crystallization synergistically tunes particle size and filtration performance. • Up to 50% lower specific cake resistance in 33% less process time compared to traditional supersaturation control strategies. • MWH enables swift transition to favorable crystallization regimes and effectively integrates energy transfer dependency on the system. • Particles generated through the MWHRC approach exhibit superior stability.