Batch distillation is one of the most important separation processes used in many chemical industries. The dynamic nature and the nonlinear process behaviour poses challenging control system design when products of constant overhead purity are to be recovered. The present work describes the development and testing of two computer based advanced control schemes. The computer-aided process operation allows the use of model-based methodologies of control. The developed adaptive and non-linear model predictive control made the conventional batch distillation column more efficient and easy to operate and the process control more accurate. Experiments performed on the pilot column confirm the simulation results.