OSLO, Norway (AP) - A Canadian-built system for de-icing aircraft with infrared rays rather than chemicals will be tested at Oslo's airport, the first such trial in Europe, officials said Thursday.

In cold weather, airliners are often sprayed with antifreeze, or glycol, to remove dangerously heavy snow and ice on aircraft's wings and fuselage before taking off. However, run-off from those chemicals can damage the environment, so the Oslo Airport and the SAS travel group's ground services unit, SGS Norway, are testing a hangar that instead melts ice with infrared heat waves.

Nic Nilsen, managing director of Oslo Airport, called the system "a valuable contribution to our work on looking after the environment at the airport."

A special hangar, which is open at both ends, is being set up at the Oslo Airport, and early next year aircraft will begin taxing through to be de-iced by infrared rays.

The test will last through the winter season, and will supplement traditional de-icing stations, the airport said in a statement.

The InfraTek Radiant Energy De-icing System is built by the Radiant Energy Corp. of Port Colborne, Ont. It is already in use at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, and Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport in Wisconsin, with a hangar under construction at JFK Airport in New York.

According to the company, airlines have reported up to a 90 per cent reduction in their use of chemical de-icing after the new system is installed.

A Radiant statement said the first European test of the system is likely to be closely watched by other European airports.

The Oslo system will be able to handle aircraft the size of Boeing 757s.
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