Batch processes are very important in most industries and are used to produce high-quality materials, which causes their monitoring and control to emerge as essential techniques. Several multivariate statistical analyses, including multiway principal component analysis (MPCA), have been developed for the monitoring and fault detection of batch process. In this paper, a new batch monitoring method using multiway kernel principal component analysis (MKPCA) is proposed. Three-way batch data of normal batch process are unfolded batch-wise, and then KPCA is used to capture the nonlinear characteristics within normal batch processes. The proposed monitoring method was applied to fault detection in the simulation benchmark of fed-batch penicillin production. In both off-line analysis and on-line batch monitoring, the proposed approach can effectively capture the nonlinear relationships among process variables. In on-line monitoring, MKPCA can detect significant deviation which may cause a lower quality of final products. MPCA, however, has a limit to detect faults. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.