Here we introduce CRASH3, the latest release of the 3D radiative transfer code CRASH. In its current implementation CRASH3 integrates into the reference algorithm the code Cloudy to evaluate the ionisation states of metals, self-consistently with the radiative transfer through H and He. The feedback of the heavy elements on the calculation of the gas temperature is also taken into account, making of CRASH3 the first 3D code for cosmological applications which treats self-consistently the radiative transfer through an inhomogeneous distribution of metal enriched gas with an arbitrary number of point sources and/or a background radiation. The code has been tested in idealized configurations, as well as in a more realistic case of multiple sources embedded in a polluted cosmic web. Through these validation tests the new method has been proven to be numerically stable and convergent. We have studied the dependence of the results on a number of physical quantities such as the source characteristics (spectral range and shape, intensity), the metal composition, the gas number density and metallicity.

accepted for publication in MNRAS