An effective approach to studying the mechanism and development of coal outburst is to conduct the outburst model tests using similar materials. A new similar material for the methane-bearing coal is developed. After mixing a pulverized with a specified particle size distribution as aggregate and a humid acid sodium aqueous solution as a cementing agent, the similar materials is made by sequentially shaping and drying the mixture. A number of orthogonal-ratio tests show that the similar material is quite similar to the raw coal with regard to bulk density and porosity under a 15 MPa forming pressure; and the material has a high compressive strength ranging from 0.5-2.8 MPa, which varies almost linearly with cementing agent concentration. Adsorption and desorption tests show that the similar material perform very well in regard to adsorption, and its adsorption isotherm agrees with that of the raw coal. The developed similar material possesses such advantages as cost-effectiveness, non-toxicity, easy manufacture, stable performance and flexible functions, and can be used to simulate the behaviors of the raw coal with different strengths, Model tests of methane outburst are carried out using the made similar material, and the phenomenon and processes of methane outburst are successfully revealed; it is shown that the similar material can simulate adsorptive and desorptive behaviors of methane-bearing coals.