About Buell Classifier
Buell Engineering Company was founded by Sprout Waldren in Warren, Pennsylvania (USA) in 1934. Prior to World War II, it was sold to Consolidated Goldfields (London & Johannesburg) and moved to New York City, NY. In the mid-1930’s, Buell licensed cyclone technology from Van Tongeren, a Dutch company.

In 1942, Buell was asked to design tangential inlet cyclones with a diameter of approximately 4 feet to replace 10-inch diameter axial inlet cyclones in a new fluid bed process unit. The process, called fluid catalytic cracking, was designed by Esso Engineering to crack heavy oil into high-octane gasoline. Because of the war effort, high octane gasoline was in demand for the allied aircraft. The US government ordered Esso Engineering, Universal Oil Products Co., and M. W. Kellogg Co. to pool their knowledge on this process and build new cracking units as fast as possible. Buell cyclones were used in all of these cat-cracking units, some of which are still in operation today.

The idea of installing cyclones inside the top head of a high temperature vessel and returning the solids collected in each cyclone to the bottom of the vessel through a pipe on the bottom of the cyclone was a completely new concept. The experience and knowledge gained by Buell during this period is still the basis for the design of fluid bed cyclone systems.

In 1955, through another licensing agreement with Van Tongeren, Buell obtained the designs and technologies for pneumatic particulate classifying systems, originally developed by Van Tongeren. These classification systems which have no moving parts separate particles into coarse and fine fractions with a precision that is second only to vibrating screens - high maintenance equipment that is to be avoided whenever possible.

In 1963, following the purchase of a fabrication shop in Lebanon, PA (USA) by Consolidated Goldfields, Buell was moved to an adjacent office in Lebanon. At this time Buell dissolved its association with Van Tongeren. Over the years, the ownership has changed hands several times, but the high quality and expertise has remained.

• In 1971, Consolidated Goldfields sold Buell to Envirotech Corporation, becoming Buell division of Envirotech.
• In 1981, Envirotech sold the Buell division and another division, Chemico, to the General Electric Company. These two divisions were merged into General Electric Environmental Services (GEESI).
• In 1997, Marsulex - a Canadian company purchased GEESI forming Marsulex Environmental Technologies (MET).
• Finally, in 2001 the original Buell division was acquired by Fisher-Klosterman with headquarters in Louisville, KY (USA).
• Buell Classifiers, Buell Refinery Cyclones and Buell APC - all divisions of Fisher-Klosterman are headquartered in Lebanon, PA and continue to provide excellent, guaranteed performance. Buell means Business!

See a Timeline of our Company’s History