Lithium-battery energy storage systems (LiBESS) are increasingly being used on electric mobility and stationary applications. Despite its increasing use and improvements of the technology there are still challenges associated with cost reduction, increasing lifetime and capacity, and higher safety. A correct battery thermal management system (BTMS) design is critical to achieve these goals. In this paper, a general framework for obtaining optimal BTMS designs is proposed. Due to the trade-off between the BTMS's design goals and the complex modeling of thermal response inside the battery pack, this paper proposes to solve this problem using a novel Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) approach. A theoretical case of a module with 6 cells and a real case of a pack used in a Solar Race Car are presented. The results show the capabilities of the proposal methodology, in which improved designs for battery packs are obtained. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.