A systematic mathematical framework for scheduling the operation of multipurpose batch plants involving heat-integrated unit operations is presented. The approach advocated takes direct account of the trade-offs between maximal exploitation of heat-integration and others scheduling objectives and constraints. In this paper, heat transfer takes place directly between the fluids undergoing processing in the heat integrated unit operations, and therefore a degree of time overlap of these operations must be ensured. The modelling is based on the ERTN formalism and a discrete time MILP formulation
