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In order to evaluate how membrane permeability affects the performance in desalination, in this work the reverse osmosis desalination system was simulated by using a macroscale flow model and the potential is quantified in terms of improvements in membrane permeability. We find that increasing the membrane permeability by one order of magnitude would allow for 15% (SWRO - seawater) and 24% (BWRO - brackish water) less energy or 60% (SWRO) and 68% (BWRO) fewer pressure vessels with a given capacity. Besides that, the ultrafast water transport in nanoconfinement environmental such as carbon nanotubes, graphene and molybdenum disulfide nanopores hold the greatest potential to cause a reduction in desalination operating costs. In addition, the water flux throgouth a nanoporous membrane based on a 2D material was evaluated using molecular dynamics approach.