Integrated Hydrometallurgical Strategies for Selective Recovery of Mo, W, V, Dy, and Te from Technogenic Acidic Solutions

Technogenic acidic solutions generated from copper smelting, gas scrubbing, and catalyst regeneration processes contain valuable transition and rare metals such as molybdenum (Mo), tungsten (W), vanadium (V), tellurium (Te), and dysprosium (Dy). Developing selective, economically feasible, and environmentally safe hydrometallurgical methods for recovering these metals is critical for circular metallurgy. This study integrates leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, flotation, and thermodynamic modeling approaches reported in contemporary literature to establish a unified, multi-stage flowsheet for efficient metal separation from low-grade and complex acidic matrices. Pourbaix (Eh–pH) diagrams and thermodynamic modeling (FactSage) are used to determine species stability and precipitation windows, while comparative analysis highlights the synergistic potential of combining solvent extraction using organophosphorus and amide-based reagents, thiourea-modified resins, and ion flotation. Results confirm that Mo can be selectively leached as molybdate or extracted as Mo(VI) from HDS catalysts; Dy and Te can be separated through potential-controlled precipitation; and W and V exhibit high affinity toward thiourea-modified sorbents. A generalized integrated recovery flowsheet is proposed.