Question

The energy efficiency of the aerobic cellular respiration reaction is?

Answer 1

Well we can do some funny calculations on this. Lets assume that the oxidation of glucose yields 30 ATP (assuming the use of the glycerol-3-phosphate shuttle). For a walkthrough check out my \(\href{ http://openstudy.com/study#/updates/50e23a20e4b0e36e3513f432 }{\sf old ~post}\).
Ok lets assume we got a \(\Delta G\) of ATP hydrolysis of about -30.5 kJ/mol and we assume not Mg in the solution. Furthermore we assume that the \(\Delta G\) for the total oxidation glucose with molecular oxygen is -2840 kJ/mol.
So we can simply do a little calculation and say the efficiency \(\theta\), most be
\[\Large \theta =\frac{ 30 \times \left| \Delta G(ATP) \right|}{\left| \Delta G(Glucose) \right| }=\frac{ 915 \frac{ kJ }{ mol } }{ 2840 \frac{ kJ }{ mol } } \times 100\%=32.2\%\]
Now this calculation is a bit wrong, but it demonstrate that the cellular respiration is not super efficient.

Answer 2

Sorry href screwed up.