State complexity of converting epsilon-NFAs to NFAs without epsilon transitions
Yes, we can transform an epsilon NFA into a NFA by keeping the same state set, basically adding new edges. If there is an $\varepsilon$ path from state $p$ to state $q$, and an edge from state $q$ to state $r$, then add an $a$ edge from $p$ to $r$. Also, if from state $p$ we can reach a final state then state $p$ can be made accepting. After these two steps we can remove the original $\varepsilon$ edges without changing the language.