From Forward and From Introductory- Summary : "This is the seventy-eighth of a series of reports designed to present accounts of progress in saline water conversion with the expectation that the exchange of such data will contribute to the long-range development of economical processes applicable to large-scale, low-cost dimineralization of sea or other saline water. The distillation system has operated with only minor difficulties. Mass transfer coefficients are in the range predicted from previous experiments. It is emphasized that the data reported above are not the best values obtained, but rather those upon which there is statistical justification based upon analysis of all the data."

"The major factors which influence the cost of water production from sea water by distillation methods are (1) the cost of fuel or energy required by the distilling plant, and (2) the required capital investment. Preliminary studies on the application of absorption or solution cycles to distillation methods for saline water conversion indicated that the fuel cost or thermal economy of a distillation plant could be improved by combining the distillation process with an absorption or solution cycle" (p. 1).