Zeolite adsorbents having a high external surface area and uses thereof

1. A process for separation of oxygen gas components and nitrogen gas components from an oxygen/nitrogen gas mixture, wherein the process comprises:

feeding the oxygen/nitrogen gas mixture to at least one zeolite adsorbent material;

separating the oxygen gas components present in the oxygen/nitrogen gas mixture by selective adsorption of the nitrogen gas components with the at least one zeolite absorbent material;

recovering the separated oxygen gas components; and

recovering the adsorbed nitrogen gas components by desorption,

wherein the at least one zeolite adsorbent material comprises at least one A zeolite, and has physical properties that are measured on the at least one zeolite adsorbent material that has been at least 90% by weight exchanged with calcium, and

wherein the physical properties comprise:

an external surface area, measured by nitrogen adsorption and expressed in m 2 per gram of the at least one zeolite adsorbent material greater than 20 m 2 ·g −1 ;

a non-zeolite phase (PNZ) content of 3≤PNZ≤18% as measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD), by weight relative to the total weight of the at least one zeolite adsorbent material;

a mesopore volume of between 0.07 cm 3 ·g −1 and 0.18 cm 3 ·g −1 ; and

an Si/Al atomic ratio of between 1.0 and 2.0.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one zeolite adsorbent material has a (Vmicro−Vmeso)/Vmicro ratio of between −0.5 and 1.0, limits not included, where Vmicro is the micropore volume measured by the Dubinin-Raduskevitch method and Vmeso is the mesopore volume determined by the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method, wherein all of the measurements are carried out on the at least one zeolite adsorbent material that has been at least 90% by weight exchanged with calcium.

3. The process according the claim 1 , wherein the at least one zeolite adsorbent material has a micropore volume (Dubinin-Raduskevitch volume), expressed in cm 3 per gram of the at least one zeolite adsorbent material, of between 0.160 cm 3 ·g −1 and 0.280 cm 3 ·g −1 as measured on the at least one zeolite adsorbent material that has been at least 90% by weight exchanged with calcium.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one A zeolite has an Si/Al atomic ratio equal to 1.00+/−0.05, wherein the Si/Al atomic ratio is measured by solid silicon 29 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR).

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one zeolite adsorbent material comprises at least one cation selected from the group consisting of ions of groups IA, IIA, IIIA, IB, IIB, and IIIB of the periodic table, trivalent ions of the lanthanide series of the periodic table, trivalent ions of the rare earth element series of the periodic table, zinc(II) ion, silver (I) ion, cupric (II) ion, chromium (III) ion, ferric (III) ion, ammonium ion, hydronium ion, calcium ion, lithium ion, sodium ion, potassium ion, barium ion, cesium ion, strontium ion, zinc ion, and mixtures thereof.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one zeolite adsorbent material comprises at least one 3A zeolite, wherein the at least one 3A zeolite is mesoporous.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one zeolite adsorbent material comprises at least one mesoporous A zeolite, wherein the at least one mesoporous A zeolite is selected from the group consisting of 3A zeolite, 4A zeolite, 5A zeolite, and mixtures thereof.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one zeolite adsorbent material comprises at least one mesoporous 5A zeolite.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the oxygen/nitrogen gas mixture comprises air and at least one impurity, wherein the at least one impurity is selected from the group consisting of carbon monoxide, ammonia, hydrocarbons, alcohols and mixtures thereof.