In this paper, a two-layer hierarchical structure of optimization and control for polypropylene grade transition was raised to overcome process uncertain disturbances that led to the large deviation between the open-loop reference trajectory and the actual process. In the upper layer, the variant time scale based control vector parametric methods (VTS-CVP) was used for dynamic optimization of transition reference trajectory, while nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC) based on closed-loop subspace and piece-wise linear (SSARX-PWL) model in the lower layer was tracking to the reference trajectory from the upper layer for overcoming high-frequency disturbances. Besides, mechanism about trajectory deviation detection and optimal trajectory updating online were introduced to ensure a smooth transition for the entire process. The proposed method was validated with the real data from an industrial double-loop propylene polymerization reaction process with developed dynamic mechanism mathematical model. (C) 2015 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.