Palmitate is a sixteen-carbon chain and its beta-oxidation will produce 8 acetyl-CoA molecules, since each acetyl-CoA is two-carbons long. Glucose, on the other hand, will be broken down to form 2 acetyl-CoA molecules. Therefore, palmitate forms 4 times as many acetyl-CoA molecules. 

The oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde in the liver produces , leading to an elevated  ratio. Multiple enzymes responsible for fatty acid oxidation are under control of this ratio; they are active when there is more  an inactive when there is more . Thus, they become inactivated, and fatty acids are stored in the liver as triglycerides - this is why alcoholism leads to fatty liver disease. Free radicals can damage the liver and other tissues but do not directly inhibit these enzymes; neither does the ethanol molecule itself nor acetaldehyde

For this question, we're going to need to know a few things right off the bat.

First, it's important to know what the general "mission" of insulin is. Generally speaking, insulin is a hormone that helps the body out when there is ample energy available. For example, right after eating a meal, blood sugar levels are going to be fairly high. Thus, the body is in a state where it doesn't want to be breaking things down to provide energy. Rather, it wants to store the energy that it has just been given. This storage generally comes in the form of glycogen and fat.

Next, it's important to understand what acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) does. As its name would suggest, it adds a carboxyl group onto acetyl-CoA. By doing so, it generates malonyl-CoA. This is a very important molecule that is used in the synthesis of fatty acids. Thus, when there is a lot of malonyl-CoA in the cell, it's likely that the cell wants to use it up to create fatty acids. Furthermore, in order to ensure that fatty acids aren't being broken down at the same time (which would be wasteful), malonyl-CoA also blocks the breakdown of fatty acids.

Equipped with this information, we can go ahead and piece together the facts as though it were a story. Insulin wants the body to store energy. It activates cellular receptors, which causes a downstream signaling event. Ultimately, this results in the activation of the enzyme ACC. This, in turn, generates a high amount of malonyl-CoA. The presence of high amounts of malonyl-CoA inside the cell gives the signal to make fatty acids and to also block their breakdown. So, all in all, acetyl-CoA becomes activated and the breakdown of fatty acids is inhibited.

Each round of beta oxidation yields one molecule of acetyl-CoA (along with one molecule of FADH₂ and one molecule of NADH). Both electron carriers feed into the electron transport chain, ultimately yielding ATP via chemiosmosis. Since the organic product of beta oxidation (acetyl-CoA) contains two carbons, nine rounds of beta oxidation are required to fully oxidize a fatty acid with a 20-carbon hydrocarbon tail. Recognize that it is NOT 10 rounds because the last round (9th) will cut the now 4-carbon hydrocarbon tail, yielding two acetyl-CoA molecules. As a rule, a fatty acid with a hydrocarbon tail of  of carbons undergoes  rounds of beta oxidation to be full oxidized.

Overall, for a fatty acid with 20 carbons in its hydrocarbon chain, 9 rounds of beta oxidation yielding 10 molecules of acetyl-CoA constitutes complete oxidation. 

One round of beta oxidation of fatty acids removes 2 carbons off the fatty acid chain at a time, yielding acetyl-CoA as well as  and  (from the 2 oxidation steps). ATP is not a direct product of beta oxidation, however the acetyl-CoA and reduced coenzymes will provide ATP via Krebs cycle and electron transport.

-oxidation of fatty acids yields large quantities of acetyl-CoA, all of which enters the citric acid cycle. The only intermediate in the citric acid cycle that can form back into glucose is oxaloacetate. It can be turned into phosphoenolpyruvate via phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. 

In the first step of beta oxidation the enzyme acyl-CoA dehydrogenase forms a trans-double bond between the two carbons at the site that will eventually be cleaved.

First, one must know what the products of one cycle of the beta oxidation pathway are. Each cycle yields , _, 1 acetyl-CoA, and a fatty acyl-CoA molecule 2 carbons shorter than the original.

Therefore, an eighteen-carbon fatty acyl-CoA input can go through the beta oxidation cycle 8 times (the last round only a 2 carbon acetyl CoA remains, which cannot enter the beta oxidation pathway again). That means there are  molecules, 9 acetyl-CoA molecules, and  molecules that can be generated from an eighteen-carbon fatty acyl-CoA. 

It may be confusing to understand why there are only  and  molecules and 9 acetyl-CoA, but if one is solving a problem such as this for the first time, go through and draw out the products following each round of the beta oxidation cycle.

2.5 ATP on average can be formed from each  molecule, and 1.5 ATP from each   molecule through the electron transport chain. 10 ATP can be formed in total from one acetyl-CoA entering into the Krebs cycle (by the products of  and  ), along with one GTP molecule.

Therefore:

If taken into consideration, 2 ATP are needed to activate a fatty acid and allow it to enter into the mitochondria via the enzyme acyl-CoA synthetase.

Therefore, the toTal net yield is

For a quick reference, the following equations can be used:

Where  is number of carbons of an even numbered fatty acid chain.

For each round of beta-oxidation, two carbon atoms are removed from the fatty acid chain. These two carbon atoms come off of the chain in the form of acetyl-CoA. Additionally, high energy electron carriers in the form of NADH and  are also produced, thus making beta-oxidation a process that liberates a great deal of energy.

Since the fatty acid that we're starting with has a total of  carbon atoms, we can expect there to be a total of  acetyl-CoA molecules produced, since each of these contains two carbons from the fatty acid.

During beta oxidation of fatty acids, carbons are removed from the fatty acid chain two at a time. So when a fatty acid is composed of an even number of carbons (as most are) 4 carbons will be left at the end. This will be cleaved into two separate 2 carbon molecules - two acetyl-CoA molecules.