One of the major emerging disasters for aquatic life as well as humans, is an oil spill. Aerogels are a suitable alternative for the cleaning of the oil spill cause of their outstanding characteristics. In this study, a facile method was presented for the production of aerogels from cellulose/lignocellulose using ionic liquids. This method is sustainable as it employs greener materials. Aerogels were prepared using sol-gel reaction with ionic liquids following gelation, and freeze-drying for 24 h. In the initial work, 1-Ethyl-3- Methylimidazolium Acetate EmimAc and 1-Butyl-3-Methylimidazolium Chloride BmimCl were used. The resultant aerogels possess an interconnected porous structure depending upon the type of ionic liquid employed. The TGA and FESEM results suggest that aerogels using BmimCl possess better thermal stability and porous structure as compare to EmimAc. The removal efficiency of BmimCl was 84% which was 12% higher than EmimAc based aerogels. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.