Patent 7673613 was granted and assigned to Denso on March, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An ignition timing is established according to alcohol concentration of fuel detected by an alcohol concentration sensor. In a torque control where a throttle opening is controlled in such a manner that an estimated torque follows an target torque, when obtaining the estimated incylinder filling air quantity, the throttle opening is varied by correcting the estimated incylinder filling air quantity according to the detected alcohol concentration. Thereby, the variation in torque due to the correction of the ignition timing according to the alcohol concentration can be compensated by the variation in torque due to the correction of the estimated incylinder filling air quantity (the throttle opening). The variation in output torque due to difference of the alcohol concentration of the fuel is decreased.