How many people have fallen asleep by now?
So it would seem that in fermentation, all of the sugar is consumed and metabolized into CO2 and ethanol.
That is, 6 pounds of sugar will yield 2 pounds of CO2 and 4 pounds of alcohol. (1 pound going to each "carbon").
Aerobic respiration burns all the sugar into CO2 and water. Therefore, 6 pounds of sugar yields 6 pounds of CO2.
But that is assumeing that the number and size of yeast cells remain constant. You know what I mean? ALL the mass of sugar gets transformed into CO2 and Alcohol for fermentation, and ALL the mass of sugar gets transformed into CO2 for aerobic. Since all the mass is accounted for, the mass of the yeast must not change. If this is the case, we should get 3 times as much CO2 out of the yeast with oxygen than without oxygen (6 pounds vs. 2 pounds).
But there is a very big but. We are assumeing the amount of yeast doesn['t change. Amount of yeast cells times how big they are can be called biomass.
In fermentation, biomass is constant (within a few percent anyway). So chuck in 6 pounds of sugar and get out 2 pounds of CO2.
In aerobic respiration, we have a situation where the yeast grow and multiply. Take 1 yeast cell, let it grow and divide (and grow a big more), and you have 2 yeast cells of the same size. The extra mass of that second yeast cell must have come from somewhere, and the only source of that mass is the carbon from the sugar. So, we our CO2 estimate from aerobic respiration is very much reduced because so much sugar is being used to create biomass.
If we could force the yeast to eat sugar but NOT actually grow and divide than yes, aerobic respiration would be more efficient in producing CO2. The original poster is quite correct. But we have all forgotton that given oxygen, yeast WILL grow and multiply, and a bunch of that sugar goes into biomass production and not our CO2.