Energy content of carbohydrate

Value 39.9 kJ/ gC
Organism Generic
Reference Jorg Overmann and Ferran Garcia-Pichel, The Phototrophic Way of Life, Prokaryotes (2006) 2:32–85 chapter 1.3, edited by Stanley Falkow, Eugene Rosenberg, Karl-Heinz Schleifer, Erko Stackebrandt, DOI: 10.1007/0-387-30742-7_3 p.32 left column 2nd paragraph
Comments P.32 left column 2nd paragraph: "At present the flux of electromagnetic energy supports a total primary production of 172.5\10^9 tons dry weight/year (168 g C×m^-2/year, Whittaker and Likens, 1975). If this global primary production is converted to energy units (39.9 kJ×gC, assuming that all photosynthetic products are carbohydrate), 0.21 W×m^-2 and thus 0.13% of the available solar energy flux are converted into chemical energy. Even at this low efficiency, the chemical energy stored in organic carbon still exceeds geothermal energy by at least one order of magnitude." 2-3 Calories per gram of carbohydrate
Entered by Ron Milo - Admin
ID 100604