Determine the amount of energy produced by glycolysis in kilocalories. This is accomplished by multiplying the number of moles of ATP formed by the amount of energy, in kilocalories per mole, of each ATP molecule. There are 2 moles of ATP produced in glycolysis with each mole containing 7.3 kilocalories per mole, which results in a total of 14.6 kilocalories of energy produced: 7.3 kcal/mol ATP * 2 mol ATP = 14.6 kcal.
Set up a ratio of the amount of energy produced in glycolysis over the total amount of energy in a single glucose molecule: 14.6 kcal / 720 kcal.
Divide the previously determined ratio and convert the result to a percentage to identify the efficiency of glycolysis. There are 14.6 kcal of energy produced in glycolysis from a single glucose molecule containing 720 kcal, thus identifying the efficiency of glycolysis as 2%: 14.6 kcal / 720 kcal = 0.02 or 2%.