Experimental and theoretical evaluation of a conventional solar still augmented with jute covered plastic balls

In this manuscript, an attempt has been made to enhance the productivity of a conventional solar still (CSS) by augmenting it with jute covered plastic balls (JCB). The motivation behind the use of JCB is to elevate the water surface area and the heat localization. For theoretical evaluation, a linear regression analysis has been used. Moreover, the LM algorithm-based ANN model has been used to model the modified solar still (MSS). A comparative cost analysis has been done to evaluate the cost of distillate produced from both the stills. The MSS has yielded 2.426 l which is 64% higher than CSS. Also, there has been a per liter cost reduction of 32.77% in distillate obtained from MSS as compared to CSS. There has been a good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results but the results obtained from the ANN model are much more close to the experimental results. The addition of JCB has improved the overall thermal efficiency of MSS by 32.76%.