We focus on the control of dissipative distributed parameter systems employing passthrou proper orthogonal decomposition (Passthrou POD) method. The objective of the approach is to develop a model order reduction and control method that is robust to model uncertainty and disturbances and relaxes some of the requirements of standard POD. The proposed method is successfully applied to regulate a representative diffusion-reaction process. To assess the performance of passthrou POD, both passthrou POD and standard POD are used to construct low dimensional reduced order models (ROMs). Linear feedback controllers and nonlinear dynamic observers are subsequently designed based on the obtained ROMs. Simulation results illustrate that passthrou POD method is more efficient and robust to model uncertainty, disturbances and ensemble construction.