text: The complete breakdown of glucose releasing its energy is called cellular respiration. The last steps of this process occur in mitochondria. The reduced molecules NADH and FADH are generated by the Krebs cycle, glycolysis, and pyruvate processing. These molecules pass electrons to an electron transport chain, which releases the energy of oxygen to create a proton gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane. ATP synthase then uses the energy stored in this gradient to make ATP. This process is called oxidative phosphorylation because it uses energy released by the  oxidation of NADH and FADH to phosphorylate ADP into ATP.