[CarterJohn11]

Our distillation column sump line is plugged up with residue material. We have tried backflushing the line by pumping backwards into it without success.

I also have tried pressuring up the column to atmospheric (column normally runs under vacuum) to try to push the material out but still no success.

I can get a bottle of Nitrogen and hook it up to a flange to pressure up the line and push the residue material back into the column to hopefully melt out, but before I do this, I want to know what is the safest way to go about doing this and minimizing the chances of knocking trays out or blowing a pressure relief.