This study examined effects of pulse intensity, mass transfer and nanoparticles on characteristic velocity in a pulsed packed column. Distilled water and kerosene were used as continuous phase and dispersed phase respectively. Mass transfer took place from the dispersed phase to the continuous one. Acetic acid (4.6 wt%) and silica's H2O nanoparticles (0.06 wt%) were used in dispersed phase to investigate the effects of mass transfer and nanoparticles on characteristic velocity. The results showed that the more the pulse intensity increased in water-kerosene and water-acetic acid-kerosene systems, the more the characteristic velocity decreased and increased respectively as regards pulse intensities lower than 1.2 cm/s and pulse intensities higher than 1.2 cm/s. Furthermore, mass transfer increased the characteristic velocity. Other findings revealed that an increase in pulse intensity in water-acetic acid-kerosene-nanoparticles system led to reduction in characteristic velocity in pulse intensity span of 0.8-2 cm/s. The statistical-derived equation in this paper indicated highly precise results for predicting characteristic velocity in pulsed packed column. (C) 2014 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.