Patent ID: 7484358

Claim:
A method of producing oxygenated hydrocarbons for reduction of nitrogen oxides in the exhaust of a lean burn engine or power plant, the method comprising: continually delivering diesel fuel comprising hydrocarbons to a reformer vessel to maintain a liquid volume of the fuel in the vessel; bubbling a stream of air plasma up through the liquid volume of fuel to reform some fuel hydrocarbons into oxygenated hydrocarbons and to continually strip oxygenated hydrocarbons and a portion of the fuel hydrocarbons from the liquid volume of fuel into the air plasma; removing the air plasma stream comprising oxygenated hydrocarbons and fuel hydrocarbons from the vessel and conducting the oxygenated hydrocarbon-containing air plasma stream into exhaust of the lean burn power plant, and removing stripped diesel fuel from the volume of fuel in the vessel.