The objective of this study was to obtain the freezing curves of beans, variety 'gordo' at temperatures of -25, -50, -170 and -196 ºC, and determine their effective thermal diffusivity. For the curves of freezing beans seeds at temperatures of -25 and -50 ºC a cryogenic horizontal freezer was used, for temperature of -170 ºC, nitrogen vapor was used and at temperature of -196 ºC seeds were submerged in liquid nitrogen. To express the kinetic behavior of the freezing of bean seeds, the Fourier model was used taking into account the first term of the series and; Cavalcanti-Mata & Duarte model I and II. The results indicate that the three models satisfactorily represent the experimental data of the kinetics of freezing, though with Model II of Cavalcanti-Mata & Duarte highest coefficient of determination were obtained. It is concluded that time necessary to freeze the seeds of beans at temperature of -25 ºC was of 1200 min; at temperature of -50 ºC the equilibrium was reached with 480 min; at -170 ºC the time was 180 min and at -196 ºC it was 30 min.
cryogenics; seeds; thermal diffusivity; activation energy
