Abstract
	Current initiatives concerning energy strategy are aimed at increasing share of renewable energy sources in total energy balance. In view of fact that in the rural areas there are a large available resources of biomass, therefore it is recommended to use biomass for production of biogas that can be applied for cogeneration - combined production of heat (hot water and steam) and power (CHP). The paper presents possibility of the use of biogas in small CHP system which will cover local energy demand of the rural area of West Pomeranian region of Poland. Composition and yields of produced biogas depend upon technological process: substrates, retention time and process parameters, therefore at the beginning, basic information concerning anaerobic digestion of biomass (manure, dunghill, waste wood,  agriculture wastes, etc) will be discussed.
	Determination of local energy demand and evaluation of regional biomass potential enabled to select CHP system for combined production of heat and power supplied with biogas produced on the spot. Power requirement in the region is  Nel= 800 kWe and the total amount of biogas that is possible to produce in the region is 2 837 000 Nm3.
	It was assumed that digestion will be run in thermophilic conditions and retention time will be 14 days. The CHP system consists of two modules, each of modules contains: digester, gasholder, gas filter, compressor, combustion engine connected with electricity generator.
	Heat generated in combustion process is partly recovered in heat exchangers emboded into cooling and exhaust system of combustion engine. Total efficiency the proposed CHP system is 81,5%, electric efficiency is 34,5% and  heat recovery  47,2% of energy supplied.