The work aims to review the research progress of PVA foaming forming technology and its water absorption performance. It introduced four foaming methods (mechanical foaming, chemical foaming, pore former foaming and physical agent foaming), four kinds of molding process (molding, melt extrusion molding, injection molding, fused deposition molding) and the research progress of water absorption performance, prospected for its application in the cold chain transportation of naval vessels. Polyvinyl alcohol polar foam was a new kind of environmental foam, which can be used in different fields by different foaming methods and processing technology adding different agents. Polyvinyl alcohol has the characteristics of excellent performance, biodegradable, economic and environmental, and has great development potential in the field of cold chain transportation and packaging of agricultural products. There is still a large research space in the optimization of foaming method and molding process, water storage and heat storage performance.