Apparatus and methods for plasma assisted combustion

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for plasma assisted combustion are disclosed. An apparatus includes a pre-combustion chamber including a pre-combustion chamber neck having a pre-combustion chamber orifice and the pre-combustion chamber neck including a non-conductive substrate and an electrode embedded in the non-conductive substrate. A method includes introducing a fuel into a pre-combustion chamber of an engine having a main combustion chamber, generating a plasma in the pre-combustion chamber, over-fueling the pre-combustion chamber to form a mixture in the pre-combustion chamber, ceasing the generation of the plasma; igniting the mixture in the pre-combustion chamber through radical induced ignition to produce a combustion gas in the pre-combustion chamber, and channeling the combustion gas via the pre-combustion chamber orifice into the main combustion chamber.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.