In the refinery scheduling, operational transitions in mode switching are of great significance to formulate dynamic nature of production and obtain efficient schedules. The discrete-time formulation meets two main challenges in modeling: discrete approximation of time and large size of mixed-integer linear problem (MILP). In this article, a continuous-time refinery scheduling model, which involves transitions of mode switching, is presented due to these challenges. To reduce the difficulty in solving large scale MILPs resulting from the sequencing constraints, the global event-based formulation is chosen. Both transition constraints and production transitions are introduced and the numbers of key variables and constraints in both of the discrete-time and continuous-time formulations are analyzed and compared. Three cases with different lengths of time horizons and different numbers of orders are studied to show the efficiency of the proposed model. (C) 2016 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.