A series combination of steam methane reforming (SMR) and dry reforming of methane (DRM) is developed as a stand-alone syngas production (SASP) system in which the heat recovery mechanism can fully replace the hot/cold utilities. The optimum operating conditions can be found by using the optimization algorithm to maximize the syngas yield subject to near-zero CO2 emission constraints. Since the syngas yield and CO2 emissions are strongly affected by process interactions and unknown perturbations, the process control method is utilized to stabilize the SASP system. Through the Hammerstein model identification, nonlinear inversion and model-based control methods, it is verified that the multi-loop nonlinear control strategy can ensure satisfactory control performance. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.