The aim of this numerical study is to evaluate the boiling process of nanofluid in horizontal tubes in the presence of a metal foam as a porous medium and represent the experimental work of Zhao et al. in a numerical aspect with a different range of dependent variables. High conductive metal foams are employed to increase the rate of heat transfer and enhance the boiling performance in the domain. The two-phase mixture model is used to simulate the characteristics of nanofluid and solve the governing equations in the two-phase flow and boiling heat transfer problem. R134a and ZnO are considered as the base-fluid and nanoparticles, respectively. The characteristics of the metal foam including the porosity and pore density as well as operating conditions including the fluid flow including the velocity, induced heat flux and concentration of nanoparticles on the pressure drop, vapour quality and heat transfer coefficient are examined. The results show the positive effect of the metal foam on the vapour production and overall heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid in the pipe outlet; however, due to the flow resistance as a result of porous medium addition, a higher pressure drop is achieved. For the heat flux of 19 kW/m 2 and inlet velocity of 0.05m/s, by using a metal foam with the porosity of 70 % and pore density of 20 PPI, the vapour quality, heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop enhances by 7.1%, 9.4% and 82.7%, respectively, compared with the case of without metal foam. However, by using the porosity of 90 %, the vapour quality, heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop enhances by 1.6%, 3.5%, and 7.0%, respectively. Consequently, according to the developed results in this paper, a system with a moderate porosity and high pore density is recommended which is finally determined based on the required vapour production and allowed pressure drop.