Types of Respiration

 On the basis of the availability of O2, respiration has been divided into two categories.

a. Aerobic respiration

It is of common occurrence found in all plants and takes place in the presence of O2 and the stored food (respiratory substrate) gets completely oxidized into CO2 and water as,

                                     C6 H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + 686 K.Cal.

b. Anaerobic respiration

It takes place in the absence of O2 or when O2 conc. is less than 1%. The stored food is completely oxidized and instead of CO2 and water, certain other compounds are also formed. This is of rare occurrence but common among micro-organisms like yeasts and can be represented by,

                                       C6H12O6 + → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2 + 56 KCal.