PUPILS from two Forest schools visited a Cinderford recycling plant which recovers some of the world’s rarest metals to be used again.

One of the highlights of the visit to the BASF recycling plant on the Valley Road industrial estate was the opportunity for the children of St John’s Church of England Academy in Coleford and Berry Hill Primary School to take part in a “Kids’ Lab”.

It was also a learning experience for staff at the BASF recycling plant on the Valley Road industrial estate as it was the first time they had taken part in an industry-schools visit.

The visit was co-ordinated by Gloucestershire-based STEMworks which works to encourage interest in science, technology, engineering and maths in young people and to further opening up links between industry and schools in the area.

The Year Six children also heard from a local ambassador for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) — encouraging girls to take an interest in those areas.

As well as the Kids Lab, the children had a tour of the facility to see how catalytic converters are recycled and learn about employees who volunteer as STEM and WISE ambassadors.

Bob Smallwood, BASF’s head of catalysts recycling, Europe, said: “We are very keen to engage with local schools, to showcase the first-class facility BASF has in the Forest of Dean and particularly to encourage school children to embrace STEM subjects.

“We want to extend the option to other local schools, based on feedback from this first event.”

Different elements of the visit were organised by employees Stephen Dew-Nash and Rebecca Cooper who volunteer as ambassadors for STEM and WISE.

Stephen said: “We were able to show the wide range of products that BASF produce and the positive effect on everyday items we all use, drawn from innovative ideas that increase sustainability.

For Rebecca, the visit was about involvement and encouraging children to consider science, engineering, technology and mats as important subjects to study.

She said: “It is a great opportunity for us to show first-hand the world of engineering and science and how it works.

“I believe visits to our production sites can be very beneficial.”

STEMworks director Mo Follis, who helped set up the visit, added: “I would like to thank BASF so much for hosting such a lovely visit,

“I know it was the the first time they had been in such an event at Cinderford but it was a huge success and the children and staff were very impressed.”

Earlier this year, seven local schools were presented with science books at the plant and since 2011 BASF has given more than 45,000 books to support science education.

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Precious, precious metals and tonnes of them

WHEN most of us think of valuable metals, we instinctively think of gold but buried deep inside most cars is a metal that is much rarer and much more expensive.

At current prices, gold will set you back around $1,200 an ounce but if you want the same amount of rhodium, you would be looking at adding around $900 on top of that.

Rhodium is an essential part of the catalytic converter in vehicles which helps reduce air pollution.

The silvery white metal, discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston, works with platinum and palladium to produce less harmful emissions.

Given that palladium is currently around $925 per ounce and platinum is $830 an ounce, it doesn’t take a degree in economics to understand why recycling these rare elements is attractive.

Most rhodium and palladium is mined in South Africa or Russia but recycling helps make supplies sustainable.

Rhodium is a by-product of platinum or nickel mining and just 25 tonnes a year are extracted.

BASF makes catalysts for some car manufacturers and at Cinderford, old converters are bought to recover these precious metals.

Some two million converters a year – weighing a total of 2,000 tonnes – are processed yielding some four tonnes of precious metal.

The metal casing opened and the catalyst crushed to a powder and a sample taken to be analysed for its precious metal content.

The customer is paid according to current metal prices which the Cinderford plant gets from the company’s London office.

The catalytic converter was invented in the mid-1970s and uses catalysts — substances that cause a reaction without being affected itself — to reduce the pollution coming out of exhaust pipes.

There are two types of converter, reduction and oxidation, which consist of a ceramic structure coated with the three rare metals.

The reduction catalyst comes first, using platinum and rhodium to reduce nitrogen oxides — a particular health concern — by taking out the nitrogen atom which frees the oxygen.

The oxidation catalyst uses platinum and palladium to burn, or oxidise, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.

One of the biggest problems with catalytic converters is that they need high temperatures to function efficiently and when a car is started from cold, it does almost nothing to reduce pollution.

Converters account use about half of the world’s production of platinum group metals or PGMs.

When a car is scrapped, the precious metals in the converter can be recycled.

In 2015, BASF installed new equipment at Cinderford which more than doubled the plant’s production capacity.

The Cinderford plant has just reached the milestone of five years with no accidents at work and are currently planning a staff night out to celebrate.