Patent ID: 7272954

Claim:
A method of low temperature air separation which may be used for producing pressurized gaseous product comprising: a) cooling a compressed air stream in an exchanger to form a compressed cooled air stream; b) forming a first pressurized gas stream by cryogenically compressing at least a portion of said compressed cooled air stream in a first compressor, wherein said first compressor comprises a first inlet temperature; c) cooling at least a portion of said first pressurized gas stream in said exchanger to form a first cooled pressurized gas stream; d) forming a second pressurized gas stream by cryogenically compressing at least a portion of said first cooled pressurized gas stream in a second compressor, said second compressor comprising a second inlet temperature; e) cooling and at least partially liquefying said second pressurized gas stream; f) feeding said cooled, partially liquefied second pressurized gas stream to a system of at least one distillation column; g) feeding said distillation column system with a liquid feed stream; h) extracting a liquid product from said distillation column system; i) pressurizing at least part of said liquid product; j) vaporizing at least part of said liquid product; and k) warming at least part of said liquid product in said exchanger to yield a pressurized gaseous product.