As the world economy continues to expand the demand for petroleum based fuel increases and the price of these fuels rises

Figure 1: MoS2 layered structure. As the world economy continues to expand the demand for petroleum based fuel increases and the price of these fuels rises. The rising price of fuel has another consequence: refiners tend to purchase cheaper fuels of poorer quality. These poor quality fuels contain increasing amounts of sulfur and other pollutants leading to a decline in air quality worldwide. A recent New York Times article described the major impact a growing Chinese economy will have on sulfur pollution causing an increase in acid rain and smog across the world.