How do you plan to recycle hydrogen during cellular respiration?
During cellular respiration, the hydrogen ions (H+) produced during the breakdown of glucose are carried by molecules such as NADH and FADH2 to the electron transport chain in the mitochondria. In the electron transport chain, oxygen serves as the final electron acceptor to form water molecules, and the energy released during this process is used to generate ATP.
The hydrogen ions are not recycled as such, but they are utilized in a stepwise process to produce ATP, the energy currency of the cell. The electron transport chain allows for a flow of electrons from high energy molecules like NADH and FADH2 to lower energy molecules like oxygen. This flow of electrons is accompanied by the transfer of hydrogen ions across the inner mitochondrial membrane, across a series of protein complexes worked as "proton pumps" that pump hydrogen ions from the mitochondrial matrix into the intermembrane space.
This results in building up of an electrochemical gradient across the membrane that is used by ATP synthase to generate ATP through a process known as oxidative phosphorylation. In this way, the hydrogen ions are not "recycled" but are rather used to drive the production of energy in the cell.