Increasing the heat transfer rate of heat transfer equipment is an ever-lasting topic in thermal engineering. Due to the advantages of light weight, high specific surface, high thermal conductivity, metal foam is a good extending surface for heat transfer enhancement. Nanofluid has a higher thermal conductivity than the traditional base fluid, so it can be used as an efficient heat transfer medium. This paper focuses on various flow and heat transfer modes of nanofluid, metal foam and the combination of the two, with the physical properties of nanofluid and metal foam summarized. The characteristics of flow and heat transfer are introduced. The motivation of this review paper is to arouse the researchers to pay attention to the basic transport understandings for the heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids in porous media. The knowledge reviewed in this paper is useful for improving the performance of compact heat exchangers, and heat sinks for cooling electronics with porous media and nanofluids. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.