Dear Alex,

I am not sure my answer is correct. If the temperature of hot gas containing terpenes dropps under boiling temperature of the unmixible water/terpenes system due to injection of cooled H2O, the increased condensation of terpenes may proceed. If it does not drop, you cannot expect the increase in terpenes condensation - this follows from the 2-nd Raoult law which says " the pressure over a mixture of two or more unmiscible liquids is equal to sum of the pressures over each pure liquid in the system /ptotal = p1 + p2...pn../ . From this reason the boiling point of such a mixture is lower than  that of each pour single liquid present in the system. This is a principle of so called distilation with saturated water steam. 

If the system, after injection of cool water, represents both hot gas containing part of volatile terpenes  and the condensed portion of  terpenes having higher b.p., the injection of superfine water spray may work due to reduction in partial pressure of low b.p. terpenes fraction in the gaseous phase. This may pay on condition that the process would proceed under pseudo /qvasi/ adiabatic conditions.

Best regards,

                    R. S. 

Thank you very much Rastislav. Perhaps I have to provide more details of the process I am looking at. The gas with relative humidity less than 100 % is cooled by injecting water to cool it by evaporative cooling until full saturation with water vapor. This brings the temperature to about 75 C - well below both boiling temperatures. The terpene compounds which are very much super-cooled at this temperature should as I assume form an aerosol, which then could be partially absorbed by the extra water mist added through atomizing spray. This water mist may then be collected in a cyclonic scrubber or Wet ESP. Your opinion on this would be appreciated. best regards, Alex

Alex, this changes the situation moderately. Under conitions presented, the atomized mist might work well and cause adsorption of some mildly polar terpenes and terpenoids on suface of the atomized  particles. The streaming spray may also destabilize the aerosol of terpenes and promote its conglomeration. I am not any expert in your field of science, so dont trust to my intuition too much.

An idea just struck me,  cannot the  streaming erosol particle gain some electric charge? Despite high gas humidity, this might be a problem from viewpoint of terpene particles aglomeration. 

Best regards,

Rastislav.

Thank you, Rastislav, your last idea seems very interesting and, probably, verifiable by an experiment. I will come back to you on this topic someday if I manage to find some proof for it. All the best

Alex Nadezhdin

Du not thank Alex, sometimes it is good to afford some strain to gray layer of one´s brain. Instead, it is me who should thank you for a vote.

Best regards,

Rastislav Solár.