Driving force of biochemical reactions

No doubt, Shakespeare was thinking of Gibbs energy change. 

There is often a confusion between enthalpy, A,//, and Gibbs energy, A G defined in Equation (1). Negative values of A G correspond to exergonic reactions that proceed spontaneously in the direct sense, and conversely, positive values of A G correspond to endergonic reaction that will not proceed unless they are 

In fact, a fraction of the A G generated by fueling reactions is not conserved in biosynthesis but dissipated since the growth reaction rate would be zero for ArGg, wth = 0 (equilibrium of growth reaction). 

For the reductive catabolism of glucose to ethanol, glucose is bismuted, i.e. partially oxidized to CO2 and partially reduced to ethanol, so that the degree of reduction of the final products are respectively lower and higher than the degree of reduction of glucose  

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