Experimental analysis of innovative designs for solar still desalination technologies; An in-depth technical and economic assessment

•Water temperature at peak jumps 7.6°C by using side mirrors and sun tracking in passive mode.•Applying sun tracking and side mirrors leads to 34.3% more distillate at peak in active mode.•The maximum daily water yield is enhanced 43.1 and 22.2% in passive and active modes.•36.0 and 22.3% better daily efficiency are achieved for passive and active operation.•The enhanced systems in passive and active modes have cost of 0.0319 and 0.0225 $.L−1. Impact of using side mirrors and sun tracking on enhancing the performance of a solar still in both passive and active modes is investigated in details by employing the recorded experimental data. The conventional system, using each improvement strategy individually, and the combination of both strategies together are studied, which leads to having four cases in each mode, and eight cases in total. The eight different cases are compared together from different aspects, including, hourly water temperature in the basin, hourly fresh water production, hourly cumulative yield, daily produced distillate, daily efficiency, and cost per liter. Based on the results, all the investigated performance criteria are improved when sun tracking and side mirrors are employed. For example, by employing both improvement strategies together, the peak temperature of water in the basin goes up by 7.6°C in the passive mode, and the maximum fresh water production increases by 34.3% in the active operation. Moreover, it leads to 43.1 and 22.2% growth in the daily water production, and 36.0 and 22.3% increase in the daily efficiency of the passive and active modes, respectively. Using the combination of sun tracking and side mirrors also imposes the cost per liter of 0.0225 $.L−1 for active operation. It is much lower than the corresponding value in the conventional system.