to increase the use of direct contact processes, the National Science Foundation sup­ ported a workshop on direct contact heat transfer at the Solar Energy Research Insti­ tute in the summer of 1985. We served as organizers for this workshop, which em­ phasized an area of thermal engineering that, in our opinion, has great promise for the future, but has not yet reached the point of wide-spread commercial application. Hence, a summary of the state of knowledge at this point is timely. The workshop had a dual objective: 1. To summarize the current state of knowledge in such a form that industrial practi­ tioners can make use of the available information. 2. To indicate the research and development needed to advance the state-of-the-art, indicating not only what kind of research is needed, but also the industrial poten­ tial that could be realized if the information to be obtained through the proposed research activities were available.