The method of the invention recovers CO 2 from an inlet cold feed stream containing a low concentration thereof, and includes the following steps. An inlet feed stream is passed through a heat exchanger, against a compressed flow of the inlet feed stream, to cool the compressed flow. The compressed flow is further cooled and compressed to a high pressure, fed to a distillation column and there converted into a vent gas including CO 2 and a high purity bottom liquid CO 2 . A first portion of the bottom liquid CO 2 is expanded to achieve a first cooled liquid CO 2 refrigerant flow, which is then vaporized against the vent gas to recover condensed CO 2 therefrom. The condensed CO 2 is then reintroduced into the distillation column. A second portion of the bottom liquid CO 2 is expanded to achieve a second cooled liquid CO 2 refrigerant flow, which is then used to subcool the CO 2 product output.