Patent ID: 7454923

Claim:
A method of separating at least one first light component from a carbon dioxide containing gaseous mixture containing at least about 30 mole percent carbon dioxide, said method comprising: cooling a feed stream composed of the carbon dioxide containing gaseous mixture to effect, at least in part, the liquefaction of at least part of the carbon dioxide containing gaseous mixture; and stripping the at least one first light component from at least a portion of the feed stream by introducing the at least a portion of said feed stream and a stripping gas stream into a liquid-vapor contact column to initiate counter-current vapor liquid mass transfer thereby to produce a gaseous column overhead stream and a liquid column bottoms stream; and the stripping gas stream containing at least one second light component having a boiling point lower than that of the carbon dioxide and higher than that of the at least one first light component to enrich the gaseous column overhead stream with the at least one first light component.