From Introduction: "The report is organized into three major sections and three appendixes. In first major section are presented a brief historical account of the work done by other organizations prior to November, 1957, and a detailed description of the experiments conducted by Battelle with the No.4 and No. 5 stills. The second major section summarizes the results of cost studies. The third major section gives data, calculations, and derivations pertaining to the heat-transfer aspects of the Hickman still."