Chemical batch processes have become significant in chemical manufacturing.In these processes

large numbers of chemical products are produced to satisfy human demands in daily life.Recently

economy globalization has resulted in growing worldwide competitions in traditional chemical process industry.In order to keep competitive in the global marketplace

each company must optimize its production management and set up a reactive system for market fluctuation.Scheduling is the core of production management in chemical processes.The goal of this paper is to review the recent developments in this challenging area.Classifications of batch scheduling problems and optimization methods are introduced.A comparison of six typical models is shown in a general benchmark example from the literature.Finally

challenges and applications in future research are discussed.