Carbon cycle

The natural Carbon Cycle describes the way of energetic interaction of plants and animals (or humans).

The Carbon Cycle (simplified)

The CO₂ is consumed by the food plants. This is part of the carbon cycle, assumed that all food is grown by food plants in the colony. All hydrocarbon intake is exhaled as CO₂ after digestion and metabolizing. Exactly the same amount of CO₂ is inhaled by the food plants and metabolized to hydrocarbons. The carbon is neither created nor destroyed anywhere in the cycle.

The photo synthesis basically creates glucose from CO₂ and water:

6 CO2 + 6 H2O → C6H12O6 

The settlers basically metabolize the glucose and release CO₂ and water:

C6H12O6 → 6 CO2 + 6 H2O