Abstract: The production scheduling program of a refinery is closely related to its economic benefit and production stability. And by performing optimization on the production scheduling, its production and processing capacity can be used fully and its profit can be maximized. In this paper, the domestic and foreign studies related to production scheduling optimization of refineries were reviewed. Then, the characteristics of models with different time expression methods and scheduling modes were illustrated in detail from two aspects, i.e., model certainty and solution method. Moreover, common algorithms used to solve production scheduling optimization of refineries were presented and their advantages and disadvantages were summarized. Finally, based on the current research situations, the model building and solution problems involved in production scheduling optimization of refineries were analyzed and the future research direction was proposed.