We have developed a new and benign method for the production of cellulose based aerogels, highly porous materials with applications in insulation, drug delivery, gas storage, catalyst support, and oil spill cleanup. Our method is based on the self-assembly of ribbon-like cellulose nanocrystals in water under low power sonication, forming hydrogels, followed by drying. We now wish to undertake SANS experiments in order to get a better understanding of the self-assembly process and to optimize the processing parameters to obtain the desired structure at the lowest possible energy consumption. Neutron scattering enables us to perform contrast variation experiments at the water/air and water/cellulose match points to compare differences in pore size shape and number between dried and wet samples, and to determine nanowhisker individualisation.