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Increases in efficiency may be possible by a new technique for non-thermal plasma aftertreatment of exhaust gases. The new technique involves very short risetimes (40ps) high frequency (5Ghz) high power bursts of low duty factor microwaves to generate a dielectric barrier discharge. The technique is illustrated in the simplified example of the dissociation of NO in N2. Electric field distributions and enhancing improvements are briefly described for a number of configurations. The technique is meant to be used in conjunction with material catalyst and can, for a class of catalysts, cause a significant reactivity on the catalyst surface.

One scenario for reducing engine out NOx in a spark ignition engine is to introduce small amounts of supplemental hydrogen to the combustion process. The supplemental hydrogen enables a gasoline engine to run lean where NOx emissions are significantly reduced and engine efficiency is increased relative to stoichiometric operation. This paper reports on a mass and energy balance model that has been developed to evaluate the overall system efficiencies of a thermal reformer-heat exchanger system capable of delivering hydrogen to the air intake of a gasoline engine. The mass and energy balance model is utilized to evaluate the conditions where energy losses associated with fuel reformation may be offset by increases in engine efficiencies.