Difference of Ascorbic acid dissolved or precipitated in Glycerol?
To acknowledge OP's request, I am putting this as my answer:

What OP's initially referring to (US20110008445A1) was a patent application. Since it was a 2011 application, I searched for the patent and found it (Ref.1). It's abstract states that: 


  A Suspension of ascorbic acid in glycerol or in glycerol comprising diglycerol, in which the content of ascorbic acid is 13% by mass or greater, and further in which 8 to 12% by mass of the ascorbic acid is dissolved in glycerol or in glycerol comprising diglycerol, and the rest of ascorbic acid is precipitated in the form of microcrystals having a particle diameter of $\pu{25 \mu m}$ or smaller and is uniformly dispersed in the suspension. The suspension of ascorbic acid in glycerol is useful as a base material for cosmetics containing ascorbic acid which exhibits excellent feel in the use (spreadability and Smooth feel on application to the skin). 


The patent described the preparation of ascorbic acid suspentions in alcohol or glycerol. Based on my knowledge in ascorbic acid, all forms of suspensions contain ascorbic acid in  in its usable form. However, one should be aware that ascorbic acid tends to have browning effect due to slow formation of related furan derivative on long standing (Ref.2).

References:


Mikiharu Okumura, Takanori Ohta, “Suspension of Ascorbic Acid in Glycerin and Process for Production Thereof,” United States Patent 2012, 8,211,472 B2 (https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/62/29/bf/f95fde91d869cd/US8211472.pdf).
T. Lalikainen, M. A. Joslyn, C. O. Chichester, “Browning Reactions, Mechanism of Browning of Ascorbic Acid-Citric Acid-Glycine Systems,” J. Agric. Food Chem. 1958, 6(2), 135–139 (DOI: 10.1021/jf60084a011).